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Letting Nature Take Its Course

Duke Gardens turns off the water

Director Bill LeFevre and associate director Greg Nace have ordered that all ornamental flower beds, including this one at the Gardens' entrance, go unwatered. Bulbs will be planted shortly. Their success will depend on natural irrigation.  If they don't come up, they don't come up.  Below, the same bed is show in more lively conditions.

In the overall picture of Duke University's water consumption, usage by Duke Gardens is the proverbial drop in the bucket. But as one of Duke's most visible users of water, Gardens officials have taken a lead in cutting back its consumption.

New Gardens Executive Director Bill LeFevre, who began work Oct. 1, said the automatic watering systems were turned off weeks before he arrived. That means there has been extremely limited automated irrigation or sprinkling of lawns, plants or trees over the past few weeks. Currently, all watering is being done only by hand in accordance with city restrictions.

"The only watering we've been doing of late is hand watering of newly planted material that is stressed," LeFevre said. "The individual horticulturists who oversee the different areas of the Gardens are responsible for deciding which plants to water. We're not watering [Wednesday] because of the rain, but on occasion the horticulturists are hand-watering selected young plants, trees and shrubs."

Medical Facilities Count for Half of Duke's Water Use

Disposable plates. Dying flowers. Fewer bed linen changes.

These are a few signs that indicate Duke has cut its water use by thousands of gallons a day since the beginning of the drought, and leaders are pushing innovative conservations methods for even more savings.

Across Duke, conservation efforts are in full swing, even in medical facilities that account for nearly half of Duke's overall water use. On Monday, a memo was sent to Duke Hospital leadership with conservation tips, such as less frequent bed linen changes and encouraging the use of waterless hand sanitizer.

For more click here.

Gardens officials have shut off water to all ornamental features such as statues and fountains. This includes the statues in the terrace area and the new stone fountain in front of the Doris Duke Center, which was shut off this week. This also includes, LeFevre said, some natural looking systems that are actually ornamental.

"There's a brook that runs under the President's Bridge just by Campus Drive," he said. "It looks like a natural brook, but in fact it is an ornamental feature that is run on city water. We turned that off, and now it is dry.

"In addition, we're looking at some of these ornamental features that are older and working with facilities management to ensure we don't lose water with them. A lot of the older systems have cracks and leak water, so we want to prevent that. We're doing that with our entire infrastructure."

On the other hand, the fountain in front of the Doris Duke Center is a new system that is very efficient and uses minimal water, but LeFevre said officials turned it off to send an important message to the public. "We want to show how seriously we're taking this."

Other steps include:

  • City water will not be used to water plants with seasonal colors that will shortly be placed in the terrace beds, the core of the Gardens. LeFevre said the terrace irrigation system includes a switch that can change the irrigation of the terrace beds from city water to the Asiatic Arboretum pond. Once the plants are placed in the bed, they will get one watering from the pond and then, "they'll be on their own until spring," LeFevre said.
  • Exterior beds, such as in front of Doris Duke Center and at the Anderson Street entrance will get winter bulbs that will remain in the ground through the season. They will receive only whatever water nature provides. "They will sleep in winter and I hope come alive in spring," LeFevre said. "Their success will depend on natural irrigation. If they don't come up, they don't come up."
  • The waterfall below the terraces that feeds the fish pool has been turned off. If necessary, water will be added to the fish pool from the Asiatic pond.
  • Mulch has been added to reduce evaporative water loss from planting areas.
  • Hand watering is done in the early morning and late afternoon to reduce evaporation.

LeFevre has set the long-range goal of creating irrigation systems that focus on recapturing natural water that comes onto Gardens property. "We want to maximize capture and reuse of natural water," he said. "Down the road we want to be able to ensure that any water that comes on this property remains on this property or naturally runs off."

Although many new plants are stressed during this drought, LeFevre said in general the plants, trees and shrubs of the Gardens are doing "surprisingly well." The signs of stress are everywhere, he said.

"One of the things we'll have to keep in mind is if this is a prolonged, years-long drought, we'll have to look at what we plant and how we plant within that larger picture," he said. "We'll need plants that can survive in that kind of environment. On the other hand, generally with woody plantings, once they are in the ground for four, five years, they're able to survive difficult environments. We're seeing that already. I'm sure next spring we'll have to remove some young trees and shallow -- rooted plants. But even among the older non-native plantings, it's amazing how many species are doing well."