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In the Fall of 2008 an old 200 gallon cistern was hooked up to the roof drain on the garden headhouse. Timber bamboo was harvested and split from a grove on the 10.5 acre property. An aqueduct/drip irrigation system was constructed to carry rainwater from the cistern into the garden’s greenhouse. This system captured and saved a significant amount of water during the 2008-2009 rainy season.
In 1962 Blake Garden, located in Kensington California, was bequested to the UC Berkeley Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning Department. Since then this landscape laboratory is used by faculty, students, staff, and volunteers for design/build projects that address issues of public landscape design, plant use and water conservation.
Blake Garden has been keeping rainfall records since 1965. In the short video posted below garden manager Lauri Twitchell measures and records rainfall using the simple rain gauge installed at the garden.
Another point to keep in mind is that from 1965-2009 the Bay Area population has doubled from 3.6 million to 7.3 million. This population growth has been accompanied by tremendous residential and industrial development that has added further demands on water usage and consumption.
At Blake Garden efforts are being made to conserve water and reduce consumption. These efforts include: rainwater collection, greywater reuse, mulching and composting, cistern collection from on-site seeps and creeks, native drought-tolerant plantings, lawn reduction and irrigation redesign.
BLAKE RAINFALL CHARTS & PDS INDEX MAP:
LINKS:
Blake Garden Rainfall Chart 1965-2009 pdf file
Bay Area Population Census
Long Term Palmer Drought Severity Index for July 2009
During the month of April work has been done to repair a leak in the 1500 gallon cistern in Australian Hollow. The cistern was initially acquired by the garden in the mid 1970’s during a drought and hooked up – at that time – to the seep under the parking structure.
PHD candidate Kristen Podolak, LAEP graduate student Nathan Hodges, volunteer Peter Suchecki, and three students from ES 125 (May, Austin and Linda) fixed the leak and built a new foundation out of recycled sidewalk cement (donated by Mike Frappier) for the cistern. A zip line was rigged from the event lawn area to get the heavy cement blocks and mulch down to the cistern area.
This past Monday the bamboo aqueduct that brings the water from the seep was hooked up to the cistern and it is filling once again. The garden is exploring solar pumping options to transport the water to other parts of the garden.
