Irrigation On in Ben Nobleman Orchard!

Marilyn watering the pollinator garden. Finally the water is on and we irrigate our plants and trees! Photo credit: Lynn

It’s been a long and dry spring and early summer and our pollinator garden and fruit trees desperately needed a drink. Usually our park’s irrigation system is turned on earlier in the year but due to COVID-19 restrictions, the irrigation systems stayed off…until now!

So the Saturday team of garden buddies in Ben Nobleman Park Community Orchard including Marilyn, Lynn, Sherry, Annie, Ruth and Gail were the first to leap into action and water our pollinator garden. The garden was, in Lynn’s words, “dry as a bone”!

The bee balm in our pollinator garden before watering. The soil was incredibly dry. Photo credit: Lynn

When the group first hooked up the hose, it seems there was little pressure but soon the irrigation system was flowing well. We had the sprinklers watering the pollinator garden from 10 am to about 5 pm. Sherry came to the Park every couple of hours to move the sprinkler, with a bit of help from Lynn, to make sure the soil was well soaked.

The team was thrilled once the irrigation system pressure increased. Finally our plants will have the water they need to survive and thrive. Photo credit: Lynn.
Annie in the garden. In areas that were not being watered, the team continued to weed the pollinator garden. Photo credit: Lynn

It was a hot but incredibly productive day. After the weeding and watering the pollinator garden looked like it was ready to come back to life. Robins were bathing themselves on the stone border around the garden as well. Now that the garden is in shape, this group of volunteers will meet every second week to continue to maintain the garden while the Tuesday group of garden buddies will continue to meet weekly for a while longer.

Sherry, Annie, Marilyn and Gail in the park. You can see that the grass is also suffering from the dry weather. At least after this weekend’s watering efforts, the pollinator garden will quickly recover. Photo credit: Lynn.

A big thank you to Daria Stairs and Tom Feeny from The City of Toronto for helping to get the water running in the park and for all the support you give us in our gardening and fruit tree growing endeavours!

Susan Poizner is the coordinator of The Ben Nobleman Park Community Orchard in Toronto and the author of the award-winning fruit tree care book Growing Urban Orchards. Susan teaches fruit tree care skills online at he fruit tree care training website OrchardPeople.com. Susan is also the host of The Urban Forestry Radio Show and Podcast, a show that explores topics relating to fruit trees, food forests, permaculture and arboriculture. She is also an ISA Certified arborist.