As a community service project to the town, the club maintains the perennial gardens on the Town Common, COA and Paxton Public Safety Complex; as well as planting flower boxes : 8 Memorial Day boxes, 2 Town Hall boxes, Window box at the Stone Light Building and planters at the Records Building.
We are actively looking for volunteers to join the 2025 watering/weeding crew!
If interested sign up here:
Areas to Water:
3 Maples around them in the northwest corner of Common by the spigot
Chief Mortell Monument
Civil War Monument in the center of the Common
Korean-Vietnam Monument southeast corner of the Common
WWI Monument in front of the Congregational Church.
Guidelines for Watering:
Please try to water before 10 AM or after 4 PM. Watering between 11 AM and 4 PM aka the heat of the day shouldn't hurt the plants -- it actually cools them off -- but it's a far less efficient use of water as much of it will evaporate before reaching the roots.
Use the shower setting on hand watering gardens & planters. Any other settings will be too strong & damage plants and wash mulch away.
We have 100' feet of expandable hose that is stored in a black 5-gallon pail hidden under the Christmas tree on the Common.
The main watering spigot is located at the northwest corner of the Common. There are also two irrigation head spigots at the Civil War and Korean/Vietnam Memorials.
Please watch the weather on your assigned week, if we get a good rain you can shift your watering date.
Please try to find coverage if you need to switch your watering date otherwise contact the club at paxtongardenclub01612@gmail.com for assistance.
See below for detailed step-by-step instructions
Each of the 3 large beds has a soaker hose system with a timer.
Buckets containing hoses and a watering wand are located behind the bushes near the steps of the Congregational church.
Bring a black trash bag with you for any weeds or assorted trash that needs to be removed from the common area.
Step 1
Starting with the Civil War Monument, hook up one of the 150' hoses (from the bucket marked Civil War Monument) to the Y connector at the main faucet, turn the water on to expand the hose and connect it to the timer. Turn the water on to the soaker hose and with the timer on the Auto setting press the Manual button to check that the system works properly. Then set the run time to 60 minutes and set the start time for a few minutes after the current time. Turn the dial back to the Auto setting and wait for the system to start working.
Step 2
Connect another 150’ hose (from the bucket labeled K/VN) to the Y connector at the Civil War memorial and commence the watering process at the Korean/Vietnam memorial. Follow the same set up procedure as before, this time setting a 30-minute run time.
Step 3
Connect a 50' hose (from the bucket labeled Maple trees) to the Y connector on the faucet and use the watering wand to hand water the first 3 tree beds. (The hose only reaches these beds.) It’s important here to apply water as low as possible around the base of the trees and the base of the plants so that the soil will just become damp and begin to soak up moisture (too much applied will cause a lot of run off and wastewater). Applying water over the top of the plants will increase the incidence of foliar diseases. When these beds have had their initial watering proceed to step 4.
Step 4
Now head over to the WWI Monument in front of the Church and connect the hose to the timer.
The long green hose is located behind the bushes against the church wall.
Turn on the water supply and then follow the same procedure as at the Civil War Memorial, run on manual first but set the run time for 45 minutes. After double checking that this system is running correctly go back to the Common to the bed area under the trees and re-water the first 3 beds.
Step 5
Go to the K/VN memorial and check the timer. Once the 30-minute runtime has expired shut off the water at source (at the y connector by the Civil War Memorial). Then run the timer again for a few minutes to reduce the pressure in the hose. Do this by pressing the manual start button but you don’t need to wait for the whole 10 minutes. Now disconnect the 50’ section of hose, the piece nearest the monument and take this section to the Maple tree area and connect to the existing hose that was used to water the first 3 tree beds. This now longer hose will allow you to water the last tree bed (the one beside the bench) and the Police Chief memorial. Use the same procedure as before, one initial watering to make the soil damp then a good heavier watering to allow the moisture to soak in. If the Police Chief’s bed seems very dry you can connect the hose to the soaker hose connection in this bed and open the valve a little to allow the soaker hose to drip water slowly. This can be left running while all the other systems are shut down.
Step 6
At any convenient time, you may use the watering hoses to partly fill a bucket and use this water to pour onto the planter boxes around the appropriate memorials. There are 4 memorial planter boxes: 1 at the Civil War, 1 at the K/V and 1 at the WWI.
Notes/Reminders
Periodically check on the timers and once the set time has elapsed the water supply can be shut off at its source. Prior to disconnecting each hose, after shutting off the water supply, run each timer on manual for 10 minutes to empty the hoses of water, thus reducing the system pressure.
Any spare time can be spent weeding any of the beds where appropriate. Any weed debris should be placed in the black trash bag that you have brought with you. Please take the bag home and dispose of it appropriately.
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Replace each hose in the appropriately labeled bucket, remember to add back the 50Ft section that you removed to the K/VN bucket, and place all buckets and watering wand under the bushes at the Congregational church.
The entire process takes just under 2 hours. On No Account should you leave the common area while the water is running. This is a safety measure and is requested by the Paxton DPW.
Thank you for your interest in being a Watering Crew Member and for taking the time to complete the job.
Kudos to the 2022, 2023 & 2024 Watering Crews. Their hard work paid off - we were able to keep the newly planted perennial gardens by Roger alive this summer despite severe drought conditions!
