Evergreen Irrigation

After two months of dedicated teamwork and a great response from our client, it can finally be said… We’re finished! This is most likely going to be last and final CSL update from our group as we have finally completed all of the required work for the community service learning project. The previous blog post talked about our site visit, how it went and what we did. Since then, one of team members put together a portfolio of all the documentation that was collected during this project. This included the correspondences and emails, the proposal, site drawings, etc. This will be handed in next week. Other than that, thanks to everyone who was involved, and a special thanks to Evergreen for being such a great client to work with. It was a great experience and everything worked out better than we thought it would. Thanks again, and we hope that the system works once you get the water back on!

Ah, at last! From concept to build, we’ve finally put together our project at the Evergreen site. Last Tuesday (the 14th), our team went down to Evergreen and we spent around an hour and a half building the irrigation system. The weather was pretty good, and we even got a little sunshine halfway through the build. When we came there the client had already bought all the supplies and had them ready for us. The process was really smooth and seamless and we all worked together to finish the project. There were no build “surprises” or missing pieces and the final product turned out exactly the way we had envisioned it. The client was really impressed with our work and we even explained how everything was connected in case they wanted to expand the system to the rest of the planter boxes. Unfortunately, however, the one thing that we didn’t get to do was actually try our irrigation system! The BCIT green building had their water turned off for the winter and so we couldn’t test our product. But once it gets warmer we hope the client will have a chance to test it out and see how it works. We are pretty confident that everything will work well and that the clients needs will be fully met. Below are some shots of the building process and the final product, enjoy! (Click on a picture for a bigger size).

Well, there’s a week left until reading break at UBC and our CSL project is coming together really nicely, in fact we’re almost there! So, here’s the update so far. After our site visit last week, we met up as a team and discussed exactly what we wanted our final solution to look like and how we plan on implementing it. We settled on a product by sold by Lee Valley that perfectly fits the criteria for our irrigation system. We then picked out all the necessary parts and tools required for the system and wrote a brief proposal for the client. The proposal included two potential systems that could be implemented, a detailed cost breakdown (including taxes), a schematic of how the irrigation system fits in, and a general overview of how we would build it and how it would function. (See the sample screen shots of the proposal below). We sent this proposal to the client and got a response almost immediately! The client really liked the proposal and chose the drip irrigation system over the row garden system (as did we). The client even proposed to pick up the materials and have them ready for us when we go to build the system next week. However, the system that we decided to build is not going to be a full scale irrigation system, rather it is going to be a sample system that we are going to try out on only a few planter boxes. If the client is satisfied with our solution then we will either provide documentation on how to complete it, or we will finish implementing the system on the rest of the site. We are all looking forward to the build date and hope that all works out well. Until next time!

Introduction (part of the proposal)

A schematic of the system (part of the proposal)

Today we finally managed to get out of lectures and labs and went down to Evergreen for our first site visit. While there, we were able to take note of site restraints, assessed the planter boxes, and made all the required measurements of the planter boxes. The area for our project is approximately 10,000 sq. ft (26m x 30m). There are 29 planter boxes in total: 17 big planters (7’x7′), and 12 small planters (8’x22″). These include 2 apple trees and various kids of berry bushes. There is quite some room between all of them, which means that integrating the irrigation system will not be a problem. We also found out that the planter boxes will not stay put permanently like they are right now, but will most likely be moved sometime in the near future. This means that out irrigation system of choice will have to be one that can be easily disassembled and put together again if the boxes were to be moved. In addition, we are not allowed to bury any hoses underground. While there we decided that we will choose several irrigation systems, present them to the client, and perhaps even test one on 2-4 irrigation boxes to see how it will work. Finally, we decided to give the client a complete proposal for irrigation system choices by the end of next week. Below are some pictures of our site visit, enjoy!

Who is Evergreen?
Over the next several weeks, our Community Service Learning (CSL) group is going to be working very closely with Evergreen – a not-for-profit organization that makes cities more livable – in order to create a planter box irrigation system. Evergreen has been engaging Canadians by creating and sustaining dynamic outdoor spaces – in schools, communities and homes. In addition, Evergreen is a leading national funder and facilitator of local, sustainable greening projects in schoolyards, parks and communities across Canada. Evergreen’s mission is to bring communities and nature together for the benefit of both. For more information, please visit www.evergreen.ca.

Project Update
Our group has contacted the client asking a few questions with regards to the project, meeting times, and site constraints. The client has replied and answered our questions and concerns. We will be having our first site visit next week on Thursday at 2:00pm. During this time we hope to fully inspect the area for our project, make note of all site constraints, and receive further clarification on project requirements, budget, and implementation period. At the moment our main concerns for this project are: (1) there is a large area to cover, and (2) different plants require varying levels of watering.

Known Site Constraints
Having contacted the client, there are some site constraints that we are aware of. The kinds of plants that this irrigation system will be used for are: dwarf, apple and fruit trees, raspberry and Saskatoon berries, strawberries and herbs.The orchard currently has almost 20 individual planter boxes, spaced out across approximately 10,000 square feet. The landscape is completely flat with no hills. As well, an underground system is not a possible alternative for this site.

Design Ideas
David and Ewan have proposed to make a central unit branching into smaller irrigation units. We would then create sub-systems that would water smaller areas encompassing fewer planter boxes. Some other possible designs include ground sprinklers, a reservoir type or an overhead irrigation system. Below are some pictures of different irrigation systems that might give us some ideas for our project.

Drip Irrigation Network

Drip Irrigation Narrow Box

Sprinkler System 

Welcome to our CSL Evergreen Irrigation project blog. Here we will be posting our project progress updates. Our team consists of six people each with a designated role:

Leader/organizer – Ewan McEachern
Secretary –  Carlo Capucao
Client Liason – Fahmid Islam
Project documentation manager – David Wiemken
Blogger – Yaro Chebunin
Utility – Kevin Rahardjo
Mentor –  Mark Yang

From left to right: Carlo, Kevin, David, Ewan, Yaro, Fahmid

If you would like to find out more about us, please have a look at the “About Us” page.