Compost Day

Raya, Yona and Tomoko helped compost today. We've nearly used all the material on the future garden areas. Tomoko brought some good ideas for furture garden (like moving herb garden into shaded area).

Visitors from China

A group from China stopped by to learn a bit more about composting. Earth Charter Communities Education, associated with the Beijing Normal University.

New Signage

Commnity Composting

Elizabeth from UCCE Master Gardeners and Rae from the City of Aliso Viejo did an awsome job at our first community composting workshop. We had about 30 attendees.

Master Composter class visit

How do you get 4 "hot" method compost bins created? Have the Master Composter class of 2012 come by for a visit: click here.

Work Day

Leia, Lisa and Julian all helped today. Pictured above they helped move the remaining compost from parking lot into SIG for storage and preping a new garden area. Lisa helped finish the seeding on berm and casting extra seed saved. Thanks everyone!!!

Sowing Work Day

Preparing and sowing seed in new garden area: Leia, Elizabeth, Yona, Nanci & Abby.

Moon Set

A pretty moon set today at SIG about 6am.

Work Day

We got our first garden patch preped, fenced and seeded! Nanci pictured cutting posts for the fence. Getting compost for plot are Silda, Elisabeth and Lisa. 1-4" of compost, gypsum and bone meal were added. The berm was planted with bunch grass seed mix and "butterfly" flower mix. The garden was planted with cover crop mix and "butterfly" flower mix too.

Bioswale #2

Facilities put together the 2nd and final bioswale that mitigates the parking lot drainage not accounted for with the original landscaping and irrigation. Very nice job!

Herb Garden

The students of the Learning Cluster planted the Herb Garden this past Friday. Looks great!

bibs & anti-siphon valve

The bibs, or faucets, had anti-siphon valves per the Moulton Niguel Water District suggestion. What these do is if fish tank backs up to line, then someone drinking from the above faucet won't drink it. I have to surmise that the "potable water" sign is there because SIG is the only irrigated area NOT using reclaimed water.

Bioswale rock

The students in the Learning Cluster built the 1st bioswale to mitigate the parking lot run off not accounted for in the original landscaping. Beach rock was added by Facilities to slow water down and to look nice.

Shed Skirting

Facilities put reinforcement under garden shed and put skirting to mitigate that the landscapers did not level the pad originally. Now critters cannot setup home under there either.

Library book presentation

Lisa of the Library put together a great collection of books in our library related to the garden. Lisa said that many of the original books out were already checked out. Thanks for support!

Learning Cluster Digging

Learning Cluster starting on getting the herb garden prepared.

Irrigation Pressure

We tested the pressure at the end of each of the 6 laterals at 25psi, as asked for originally asked for in March 2011. Yea! On discussing best way to protect the fixtures, I agreed with Antonio to simply bury them... maybe put something on top as marker. The irrigation controller, Rainbird ESP, has 13 stations... all wired. We have a total of 8 valves, 1 is used for 3 oak trees in the garden area. 1 is stubbed out for future use. Wiring is run for an additional 5, so we have room to grow!

Learning Cluster: soil texture test & bioswale

Students in Learning Cluster doing soil texture test: clay, silt & sand mix. The parking lot drains directly into the garden, so the class is building a bioswale to trap, slow down and channel this to drain. This is really mitigation work that should have been done to the original landscaping, but...

Learning Cluster group

Group picture of Learning Cluster.

Learning Cluster begins with rabbit fence

The Learning Cluster started Monday and the group is designing and prepping for an herb garden in one of the garden plots. The first item they talked was a rabbit fence around all the garden areas. This involved putting 3' chicken wire around the existing fence, putting up a fence of bamboo posts, see video: click here, and building gate on path.

SIG AM pan

See the garden area from the air. See video too: click here.

Key Access

We installed a key box with combination lock so active volunteers can work at their own pace.

Drinkable Water

The water within the SIG has now been deemed "drinkable" by Moulton Niguel Water District! In the picture above you can see the tags have been removed. We still have to put on anti-siphon valves on each of the bibs.

Learning Cluster: compost delivery

Compost/Potting Soil delivery for Learning Cluster. See video: click here.