Throughout 2024, VPT provided infill planting to the shrub hedges that surround the park’s historic Lily Pond features, installed a new drip irrigation system to support the hedges over time, and repaired existing irrigation to the garden beds nearby the Lily Ponds and the Black Sun sculpture.
VPT funded and installed a complete restoration of the Lily Pond hedges some years back. Over time, some of the shrubs in the hedges died, leaving incomplete and spotty enclosures around the ponds. As part of our Spring Restoration Day, VPT planted 63 new Japanese Holly (Ilex crenata ‘Convexa’) shrubs to infill the gaps in the hedges. This species is an excellent choice for a broadleaf evergreen hedge, matches existing conditions, and meets the design intent of the original Olmsted planting plan.
Given the prospect of a potentially hot, dry summer, VPT was concerned about the establishment of the Lily Pond hedges given the fact that at the time the Lily Pond hedges did not have an automatic irrigation system and instead relied on manual, hand watering. VPT worked with Seattle Parks and Recreation and Iliad NW, to scope, design and install a drip irrigation system for the hedges, which represents the most efficient and resource conserving approach for delivering regular, sufficient water to the hedges during our summer droughts.
While working on the scoping and design of the drip irrigation system, the team uncovered additional efficiency opportunities to correct issues with nearby existing park irrigation. In recent years, some of the garden beds adjacent to the Lily Ponds have had spot issues with overspray (water spraying into paths of travel or non-garden areas), insufficient coverage (areas where garden beds were not receiving adequate irrigation water), and head placement. Installing the new drip system required a temporary shutoff of the existing irrigation service lines to connect the new drip system to the park’s existing irrigation controller, and the temporary shutoff provided an opportune time and price to fix the existing issues and complete the improvements in one holistic pass.
In total, the irrigation work was completed in 1 weeks’ time and came in ~$6,500 under budget due directly to the bundling of efforts. Seattle Parks and Recreation is pleased with the work completed and appreciative of VPT for the systems thinking approach employed on this project.
This project was funded through individual donations to Volunteer Park Trust.
