Joanne Winer
QUARTZSITE TIMES
December 20th, 2005
If you have been out to the Gardens lately, you will have noticed a lot of
yellow caution tape in the Heroes area and the center behind the mining
equipment. The tape is marking the trenches that have been dug to put in new
water lines.
In the summer months, when the temperatures reach over 110 degrees, it still
takes three people watering for over three hours twice a week to keep the trees
and plants from dying from the heat.
We have been watering most of the areas with hoses, with only a few areas on
drip lines. It is a huge job, especially in the heat. In the winter months, it
still takes three people three hours once a week to keep everything watered,
with more and more things being planted all the time as new areas are worked on.
It will be so nice to have permanent water lines put into some of the bigger
areas to make it much easier for us to keep up with it.
The trenches have been dug by Todd Hirst, who has gone out to the Gardens
several days each week and putting in 3-4 hours each day getting this labor
done.
He has done a great job, and we really appreciate the work he has done to get
these trenches finished so that town workers can lay the pipe for the water
lines.
We are going to be using PVC pipe throughout the lines instead of irrigation
hose because the coyotes have been digging up the black lines and chewing them
to pieces, causing many leaks.
They have also been chewing up all the hoses that are out there, so these new
water lines will eliminate most of the problems we have with the critters.
We are hoping to eventually have all areas with the old lines replaced with
permanent pipes, and put them on timers to make it even better, but for now, we
are going to concentrate on getting irrigation pipes to areas that have not been
put on lines.
Thanks to Todd, we have made a good start on getting this work done.
It will be really noticed this coming summer when it won’t take as long out in
the heat to get the watering done.