Making Pollinator Dreams Come True

We made a dream come true for a kindergarten teacher at Arcadia Sky Community School by installing a pollinator garden so her students can have a sensory experience.

It all started with a tour of a lot by the Tucson Water well, We had reached out to Melody Peters, of the Pollinator Equity Project, about supplying some plants for a pollinator garden there. She invited Kathleen Opeka, a garden consultant and landscape architect, to join us. We scoped out where we might put a rain basin and some pollinators to compliment the desert plants that were already there. We wanted to create a lovely space for the students at the nearby school to get out in nature.

After the tour, we stopped by the school to give an update on the project and met some of the teachers. The Kindergarten teacher, Jackie, took the opportunity to pitch the idea of having a pollinator garden for her students. After a quick tour of the area, we all agreed to work on the "Kindergarden!"  

After seeing what plants Melody had available, Kathleen came up with a garden map to show where to plant them. To fulfill Jackie's dream of creating a sensory experience, they looked for plants that you could see, hear, taste, and touch. And ones that didn't have any spines to prick little fingers. This is what they came up with.

Garden plan by Kathleen Opeka of Desert Primrose Gardens

Meanwhile, Dan removed some volunteer mesquite trees and dug a rain basin along the fence. Using the planting guide, he dug most of the holes in the basin so it was ready for the littles to plant. He built up a berm along the fence to collect the water that would be coming down the slope.

Finally the big day arrived! Melody was up bright and early to bring 29 plants and place them in the right locations - using Kathleen's planting map as a guide.

Kathleen arrived after dropping her kids off at school and adjusted the plan a bit for the space. Then the three of us dug the rest of the holes.

Then it was planting time with the littles! Kathleen's love of gardening was contagious. She shared how the purpose of the garden was to support pollinators with native plants while bringing color and joy to the space. She pointed out the rain basins that were designed to collect our valuable rainwater from uphill that will flow into the basin.

Then she showed the proper technique for handling the rootball gently, planting the proper depth, filling the hole with dirt (from piles Dan had cleverly left by each hole). She explained how to water the dirt around the plant, not on the plant.

Each of the adults were assigned two kids to supervise. They held the plant in place while they squeezed the plastic pot to loosen the rootball, then lowered it carefully into the hole. They used their little shovels and hands to put the (now hot) dirt around the plant. My little partner even demonstrated how her father stepped on the dirt to pack it in.

After the kids were done planting, this amazing woman went to Ace to get a hose and timer to create a simple irrigation system that she donated to the school.

Then Dan filled in the basin around the plants with mulch to retain the water longer.

Some of the plants for the sensory garden were Palmers Mallow that is fuzzy to touch, chocolate flower for smell, and many colorful plants that are a treat for the eyes. Many seeds pods will make crunchy noises when dried. And dried Penstemon seeds rattle. The chuparosa will eventually have flowers that are edible. Sorta tastes like cucumber.

In the meanwhile, I liberated purslane that was growing by the playground in the nearby park to be a tasty treat. Tastes citrusy. Common purslane is the one with the tear shaped leaves. 

I planted my favorite edible weed between each of the plants.

I wondered what the children thought of the experience. It was pretty hot out there after all. The teachers' responses say it all...

"I am beyond words. I am incredibly grateful to all the hard work that has gone into this beautiful project. At the end of the school day we go over our favorite things that happened during the school day in order to close out our day. Every single student said that helping in the pollinator garden was the highlight of their day. Upon pickup time the students were all so eager to show their hard work to their grown ups. Today is a day I will remember for a very long time. I am so grateful to everybody involved, thank you all so much for helping our little school become an extra magical place. I conclude my gushy email with a quote from one of my personal hero’s Fred Rogers “We live in a world in which we need to share responsibility. It’s easy to say, 'It’s not my child, not my community, not my world, not my problem.' Then there are those who see the need and respond. I consider those people my heroes.”
With immense gratitude, Jackie Murillo

"We know these plants will make an impact on the local environment, and we hope they will make an impact on the lives of the children who helped yesterday. By making little dreams a reality we slowly and gently create a better world for ourselves and those we share space with," Zoraida Gonzalez.

You're Welcome,
Team Pollinator

Thanks to Melody and Sustainable Tucson's Pollinator Equity Project for providing 24 plants. And her husband for transporting them. https://sustainabletucson.org/pollinator-equity-project/

Thanks to Kathleen for everything! You can find her at: https://www.desertprimrosegardens.com/

Next up - Pinecrest neighborhood pollinator garden.

Watering Just Before the Rain

As the dark clouds of Hurricane Priscilla loom overhead with the promise (or threat) of rain, it may seem unintuitive to deep water plants. After all, won't they get watered by the storm? But one inch of rain can fill up even our biggest cistern. Especially if your cistern is full - it's time to make room for more rainwater. The overcast sky also provides shade so the water doesn't evaporate as quickly! 

I have the challenge of deciding what plants to deep water. I started by giving the moringa in our right of way basin two 5 gallon buckets. (See pic at the top of the page.) Dan drilled two small holes in the bottom of the blue bucket to let the water out slowly.

I also gave three 5 gallon buckets to our pomegranate that has been struggling since we got the water efficient washing machine. It only releases 2-3 gallons of water into the greywater basin (rather than the 12 gallons it used to supply.) 

The 55 gallon barrels that get water off of the roof and the air conditioner condensation have already been emptied.

I used the water from them for our little garden that needs to be watered 2-3 times a day in this unseasonably hot weather.

I've left the water from the last downpour in the cisterns attached to overflow tanks in hopes that one more downpour will finally refill the second tank.  

While preparing for the rain, we also cleared debris from the gutter and the leaf catchers so they work efficiently. After the long dry spell, we are keenly aware that every drop of water is precious.

If Hurricane Priscilla pitches a fit, we could get enough to easily fill the second slimline tank and overflow into our Jujube basin to deep water our jujubes. 

Hurricane Priscilla did fill up the jujube basin! 

And we might just fill up our biggest cistern. 

But the water will overflow into our patio that leads to our Mexican honeysuckle...

That's not a bad problem to have.  That's why it's always important to have overflow for your tanks. 

Just for fun... Here's the blog about my first rainwater harvesting experiment that made that possible. 

Pulverizing Bricks that Dam the Flow

It was a good thing that we used up some of the water in our cisterns before the big storm.

From Drought to Flood: Rainwater Harvesting at Work

With rain so scarce these days, it may seem pointless do rainwater harvesting. I imagine the neighbors scratch their heads at our sign "Rainwater Harvesting Basins at Work." But through the hot summer, that basin has become a refuge for wildlife. I'm amazed how many birds gather in our yard. Sometimes as many as 30 or 40. The birds peck around and manage to find something to eat in the remaining mulch. They particularly enjoy the seeds of the purslane I planted there.  

Here it is mid-September and we finally got two good storms thanks to Hurricane Mario. Needless to say, we are overjoyed! The rain has perked up our parched plants. The birds are enjoying the evaporative cooling sitting on the mulch after the rain. That sign finally makes sense. 

Every rainstorm is an opportunity to see if anything needs adjusting in the basins. This downpour uncovered areas where the mulch has gotten too thin and where the gravel berm needs to be reshaped after some plumbing work we had done. 

The area in front of the sign needs some mulch.

One of the issues of a long time drought is that native grasses and wildflowers die leaving behind parched ground. With nothing to slow down flood waters, any remaining soil and mulch is washed away. This year I made an effort to mitigate flood damage in the main basin by planting some durable pollinator plants and purslane that I kept watered. 

I also left the dried native bunch grass and dead looking globe mallow in the jujube basin.

They slowed the stream that rushed down from the roof while holding the "mulch" and soil in place. By mulch I mean the fallen leaves and globe mallow branches I had "chopped and dropped" in the basin.

NOTE: After watching the bunnies nibbling on the dried grasses, I regret cutting off all of the seed heads - a much needed food source for bunnies and birds.  I'm happy to see those grasses finally greening up and some horse purslane popping up since it rained. 

Dan and I are blessed to have several cisterns that got us through most of the long dry spell. Now they are full again and ready to get us through the hot days ahead. One more rain should fill up our overflow tanks too.

For the tanks that aren't connected to an overflow tank,  I have the challenge of deciding what to deep water before it rains again. That's a good challenge to have.

And there is always a little maintenance after a big rain - like replacing mulch and building up leveled berms.

Yesterday I built up the berm around our volunteer fig trees in our little veggie garden and added more compost to replace some that had been washed away. (I hand water them with rainwater from a cistern, so the berm helps contain the water.)

I just love any excuse to be out in the yard listening to the happy songs of the birds after the rain.

UPDATE: Hurricane Priscilla supplied .35 inches of rain on October 12th. It filled most of the tanks but not the overflow tanks. The thirsty basins sank in the rain immediately.  

On October 13, it rained pretty heavily most of the day. We got 1.08 inches of rain. Rain from the roof rushed out of the downspout, filled the whole jujube basin and even started to flow into the street. It filled the overflow cisterns. The basins filled up several times, even pooling for a while.

Greywater basin pooling

The smaller 5 gallon water barrels were overflowing, so I caught some of the water in these barrels...

NOTE: In our neck of the woods,  our shallow basins in our front yard can handle a pretty heavy rain - with the help of a gravel and dirt berm built up by the foundation of the house. But if you are at the bottom of the floodplain or near a wash, you might need to install some deeper basins lined with rocks to prevent erosion or damage from a big storm. I've seen some excellent rock-lined basins in right of ways that prevent a big flood from getting to the foundation of the house or to cause erosion in the yard. 

#lovemyrainbasin

Summer Vacation Survival Plan for Our Plants

Like many times before, the weather forecast called for rain. But this time our eucalyptus tree was swaying frantically in the wind and dropped a branch. Dan rushed outside to clear the gutters so we could harvest every bit of the long awaited rain. 

We were hoping to get a new cistern connected before we left on a family trip to Wisconsin the next day. And now we were racing the first storm of a delayed monsoon season, too. 

Dan had ordered some parts to connect a 425 gallon cistern to collect the overflow from our 200 gallon tank. During a heavy rain, the 200 gallon tank wasn't big enough to hold all the water that flowed from our neighbor's huge roof.  Hoping to get the cistern installed before the downpour, Dan had made a soft bed of sand for it to sit on and rolled the 425 gallon cistern in place on plastic pipes.

Unfortunately, the necessary parts didn't arrive before we had to leave. Neither did the rain. 

It finally rained 0.03 inches on July 2nd, just after we left for our trip. We were sad to miss it. 

But preparations for the trip had begun days before. Our "drought tolerant" plants were already suffering from weeks of extreme heat.108 degrees the day before we left on our trip! If my precious plants were to survive for the 11 days that we would be gone, I would need to deep water some - even if that took some city water.  I left the hose running on low to deep water my scorched palm tree and the surrounding agaves a few days before. 

Our droopy Mexican honeysuckle (that usually lived on rinse water) got similar treatment. 
 

I used the remainder of the rainwater in the big 500 gallon cistern to deep water the struggling pomegranate, curry, and moringa trees.  

(Dan drilled 2 small holes in each of the 5 gallon buckets to release the water slowly.) 

 

Our poor moringa had suffered greatly from the long dry winter, and the freeze (among other things.) It just needed it to make it until the monsoon rains started - when we knew it could grow 6 feet.  We gave it 15 gallons of rainwater the day before we left and covered it with shade cloth to protect it from the July sun.   

But I was really worried about my new pollinator plants (Arizona foldwing and spiderwort shown below) that needed nearly daily water in this heat.  Of course, being planted in the rain basin doesn't do a lick of good if it doesn't rain. 

Luckily a new friend came to the rescue - offering to come over daily and water those special plants and some recently planted veggies and newly sprouted herbs in our little garden! That was a great load off of my mind. 

So off we went to Wisconsin to hang out with family. 

But being the water nerds that we are, Dan did a presentation on "A Story of Water in the Desert" for Sustainable Tucson while we were there. 

We needn't have worried about not harvesting that extra rain in the overflow tank. It hadn't rained much while we were away. Sadly, the basin was bone dry, but everything in it survived thanks to the loving care of our neighborhood angel.

Dan went right to work hooking up the new cistern. 

Just in time, too! Three days after we got home we got three days of rain! 1.03 inches worth!

The spiderwort pollinator bloomed in the basin...

The Mexican honeysuckle plumped right up with orange hummingbird trumpets. 

The moringa has grown a foot so far...

The first big rain refilled our 500 gallon cistern, so we needed to use up some so there would be room in the tank for more. 

Jar collects every last drop in the hose

After deep watering the fig tree, pomegranate, moringa and curry, we went ahead and gave the mesquite on the high end of the basin 6 buckets of rainwater, even though we normally don't water it at all. After all, it was supposed to be a big wet monsoon this year.... 

 

We celebrated collecting all that rain with a new sign: "This Home Harvests the Rain." 

#lovemyrainbasin