While summer has wrapped up, the irrigation season is still underway.
Regular irrigation in the first year of planting is crucial to establishing the root systems of young plants and ensuring their success for years to come. This irrigation season started in the beginning of April, soaking in all the spring plantings. These were installations such as the rain gardens at Iroquois Park’s North Overlook, new shrubs and perennials at Elliot Park with help from Brown-Forman volunteers, tribute trees dedicated to loved ones, and replacements for plantings that may have failed previously. Due to drier weather conditions compared to last year’s spring, irrigation continued throughout the spring planting season into summer.
This season, we irrigated 106 newly planted trees/shrubs and 25 landscape beds. The irrigation cycle took roughly three days to complete and approximately 2,500 gallons of water per week, requiring more time and water on particularly dry weeks. The end of summer and beginning of fall is typically the driest time of the growing season, making September and October crucial times to continue irrigating young plants. We’ve completed around 25 irrigation cycles this season around the Olmsted Park System and are likely to proceed into November if we continue to have a dry fall.
Avery O’Brien, Field Crew Technician
