Koi pond? Hot tub? Nope, future stormwater mitigation garden!

We’ve been fielding a few questions about the excavation of the brick planters behind the Extension office.  Nope, we aren’t building a koi pond back there!

This summer a very dedicated team of MG volunteers have been hard at work building a storm water mitigation garden.  We’re partnering with the Long Tom Watershed Council on this project.

First step was to remove the aggressive weeds (St. John’s Wort and horsetail among others) and their roots.  Volunteers sifted soil and removed roots-big and small.  A percolation test was ran on the soil to see how well the remaining soil drained.  Looks good!  Right now, volunteers are repairing the brick walls and drilling seep holes.  (A large tree root caused some damage to the west bed.)  Next steps are to make repairs to the gutter/drainage system and then measure for soil!

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Progress on Stormwater Mitigation garden

Thank you to Patty and all the Master Gardeners who came out on Thursday morning to remove hypericum from the beds.  And in the heat!

Another before shot Before shot

Before shots of hypericum filled beds

Tree stump and bare bed

All that hypericum was hiding a large stump! Get out the grinder!

Awesome volunteers!

 Thank you, volunteers!!!

THANK YOU Work Party Volunteers!

Thank you to all the Master Gardeners who came out and volunteered in the garden on Wednesday!

We got so much accomplished:

  • Freed the rose garden of benches (very heavy benches) that were blocking it in.
  • Starting adding numbers and solar lights to the raised beds
  • Weeded bed #6 in preparation for seeding lettuce.  Got the nasturtiums planted
  • Harvested fava beans.
  • Weeded along the boxwood hedge
  • Planting and weeding in the Adaptive Garden
  • Added lines to the raised beds for soaker hose or drip line irrigation
  • Weeded, tilled and planted the sunflower and pollinator plant patch.
  • Began prep to extend the brick sidewalk to the back parking area.

Want to see some photos?  Visit the OSU Extension Lane County Facebook page.