by Amy Martin

Whitehaven Garden at the blocked-off end of Whitehaven off Lake Gardens is in a raised bed that drains rapidly. Plus, it’s full of new plants that require consistent water and attention in their first year. We’d been blessed with rainfall this spring, but now the 90s to 100s are here. Time to water!

Problem is, there’s no water to the bed. Jay John and Johnna Myers to the rescue. Jay, who lives next to the garden, provided the landscape contractor to build the bed a couple decades ago. He and Dale Anderson, who lives on the other side of Whitehaven, built the fence behind the bed.

Jay and daughter Johnna gave the go-ahead to draw water from their front-yard faucet for the garden. So how to get it there? It takes a village of Eastwood volunteers.

Gilda Kessner donated two heavy-duty 100-foot garden hoses. Scooter Smith got them back in shape by removing hose-end attachments that had glommed on tight. I purchased an oscillating sprinkler and U-shaped stakes, plus some mulch.

Francis Shaner used his know-how to come up with a system of routing the hose along the base of Jay and Johnna’s house and fence using the stakes with Keith Marcom’s help.

Then he configured braces to continue routing it along the bottom of the fence with Keith’s help. The stormwater flow off the apartments behind the fence is powerful, so the hose can’t rest on the pavement.

Just a few feet from the fence to the sprinkler. Voila — garden water!

Together, Francis, Keith, and I mulched the bed.

Then watched with delight as the sprinkler made merry on the bed. Teamwork!