Carpinteria City Hall Sponge Garden 2011
G3’s Pamela Berstler led a small, but mighty, team of volunteers in creating a sponge garden (a.k.a rain garden) at the Carpinteria City Hall as a kick-off event for Creek Week 2011. This seven hour build blended a Hands-on Workshop in Sheet Mulching, Planting, and Irrigation with a Volunteer Workday sponsored by Surfrider Foundation’s Ventura Chapter Ocean Friendly Gardens Committee. G3 Qualified Trainer, Renee Roth, was on hand as a representative of the OFG Committee. And Erin Maker from the City of Carpinteria, coordinated with G3 to have all the materials on hand.
Sponge Gardens Means "Rock Mover" In OFG
The objective was to make the existing boulder installation appear more natural with wider areas to slow down water, and deeper areas to sink it. The new dry creek bed takes rain water from the adjacent grass area and allows it to slow, spread, and sink before overflowing into a large grass staging area. The creek bed was altered to allow inflow from the parking lot and street when and if Carpinteria cuts its curbs. The garden area itself was contoured to hold more water in the dry creek area and to provide low spots for tucking CA native plants in around the rocks. Humates were applied liberally to the garden, and the plant material was inoculated with myccorhizal spores and thoroughly dunked in water with fish hydrolysate.
Carpinteria Sponge Garden Completed
Native plants including Arctostaphylos ‘Howard McMinn’ (Manzanita) Eriogonum fasciculatum (Buckwheat), Achillea millefolium (Yarrow), and Mimulus cardinalis (Monkey flower) were planted throughout the garden after the site was covered in painter’s paper and sheet mulched with fresh tree trimmings. These plants will be hand watered twice a week until the winter rains begin. Drip irrigation was partially installed, but the team ran out of daylight before being able to complete all the zones, check the emitters, and flush the lines. The irrigation installation will be completed in coming weeks by the Carpinteria Public Works Dept. crews. Check out the Carpinteria City Hall Sponge Garden as it grows, and be sure to stop by in the rain!
The Garden Before Sponging
Carpinteria Garden After Sponging
Carpinteria City Hall is located at 5775 Carpinteria Ave., Carpinteria, CA 93013.
