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.
