Weedin' and Waterin'

My name is Laura Middleton. The week of November 1st - November 5th I acted as field leader for the Grand Canyon Native Plant Corps. The plants are still in need of water since it has been a suprisingly mild fall so far. Starting Monday we split off into watering teams to address some of the planting sites that were in greatest need of water. Chrisine and I used the moisture meter to determine which sites were in greatest need of watering. We then prioritized the watering based on the moisture meter numbers. Most of the sites were around 6-8 however, some sites, particuarly P-1 was very dry. The other team also watered some of the sites that we knew would be very dry and in desperate need of water. Later in the week we weeded invasives at p-4. P-4 is located directly behind the visitor's center and has almost been entirely taken over by knottweed. We spent tuesday pulling Knottweed and other invasives and prepared ourselves for our group of volunteers coming on Wednesday. Wednesday was a very productive day! Our volunteers from the fundamental group were very enthusiastic about helping us with planting. At the end of the day we had almost planted the entire area! The rest of the week, Thursday and Friday, consisted of a combination of watering, weeding and finishing up planting P-4. Great week!