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IMS <br />OLLIE <br />Mecham, Boyd <br />the arden <br />g is started <br />THE FRENCH GARDEN HAS A NEW NAME. <br />It's still modeled after Renaissance gardens, replete with hedges and <br />geometric plots, but it's since been dubbed the Outdoor Laboratory for <br />Landscape Irrigation Education, or OLLIE. <br />And these days, it's not just a plan. <br />Since Irrigation Management <br />Services' Brent Mecham unveiled the <br />drawings for the outdoor lab a year ago, <br />the soil has been amended and leveled; <br />curbs installed; 415 bare -root privet <br />hedges planted and a variety of sprinkler <br />systems installed. Some of the garden's <br />plots were seeded with grass, while <br />others were carpeted with sod. <br />Mecham and Ron Boyd, along <br />with two summer interns and a cast of <br />temporary workers toiled through 2004 <br />to get the garden started. <br />In the nation, Mecham says there isn't <br />another like it. He says it's a technology <br />transfer station more than a formal lab. <br />The University of California - <br />Riverside does have a test garden he said, <br />but it isn't of the same magnitude or as <br />formal. A private organization in Texas <br />is trying to raise the money to build one <br />with indoor labs. <br />"We're not a research facility," <br />Mecham points out. "We're a technology <br />transfer station. Ours is more of a <br />demonstration. We're looking for <br />practical solutions. People are allowed to <br />walk through, people can see it, touch it, <br />put their hands on it. We're anticipating <br />a lot of interest." <br />The two, with help from the <br />District's Public Information and <br />Facilities teams, developed informational <br />signs and brochures for visiting turf <br />managers as well as weekend gardeners. <br />Next Mecham and Ron Boyd will <br />begin to collect data. Among the <br />By Lori Ozzello <br />equipment already installed are 10 <br />evapotranspiration, or ET, controllers <br />and eight different soil moisture testing <br />systems. They'll also test the latest <br />sprinkler technology, which includes <br />common -sense gizmos that can be <br />attached to an existing system to make it <br />more efficient. <br />"For decades, nothing much <br />happened in the sprinkler industry," <br />Boyd said. "Now, with small <br />improvements, you can have a whole <br />new (sprinkler) system." <br />LOOK AT THIS. <br />across between an allen wrench and a <br />person can control the flow of water by <br />Brent Mecham is. holding,what looks <br />"skate key. , _ <br />opening or closing the-Valve. <br />hke a prop -up <br />"I stumbled onto this and its just <br />It gets, better Sirkin, whose design <br />sprinkler head, <br />ingexiious," Mecham explained. <br />patent is pending, pays 25 cents apiece <br />except it I h as a <br />handscapers are- forever getting <br />for used sprinkler heads people send . <br />tiny silver valve <br />soaked when they try to adjust or repair <br />hmi. He xecyeles them He sells the , <br />installed about ` <br />sprinkler heads. The sprinklers have to <br />modified pop -up he ills for 30 gents <br />halfway up <br />be on, after, all; to figure out where the <br />each and pays postage; <br />the stem. And <br />water is or isn't going. <br />he's Bolding <br />Or, maybe not anymore. <br />TO REACH Sirkin at The Little °Valve„ <br />something else <br />that looks like. <br />A Californian, Ted Sirk'►n, invented a <br />Company, call (86$)200 $5�0 or X11 4 <br />tiny valve controlled by a key. Using it, a <br />vuww.valvettesystems:com <br />APRIL 2005 WATERNEWS 111 <br />