• What’s GROing at the Bonsai Garden?

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June 30, 2016 by 

Irrigation Update

As I mentioned in my previous message, we are in the process of revitalizing the CSpaceLogo1Bonsai Garden. We decided to initially focus on the irrigation system, since that is the most important component of our plan and one area that will produce the most benefit for the bonsai. It will also save at least half of our water usage when it is fully implemented. We have begun the process of reworking the irrigation system by replacing the outdated controller and replacing the overhead sprinklers in the reserve area. This first phase of the project is complete. The dozens of previous overhead sprinklers distributed 25 gallons per hour (GPH) each. The new misters distribute 3 GPH. It’s not that we run them for an hour, but you get the idea that they were wasting a lot of water that flowed down the drain. We will test this new form of water distribution and determine if we can eliminate the surface watering due to the superior saturation of the new misters.

Once this test process is complete, we will install misters in the display Garden, but this will need to wait until the new benches are constructed. In the meantime, we are actively involved in securing funding for the various aspects of our Garden Revitalization Opportunity (GRO) program from traditional bonsai sources as well as outside funds. If you or your Club wish to contribute, please respond to this email or read more about the GRO program online.

Collection Database

We will soon have all of the information on our bonsai collected in paper files for over 16 years, available on a CollectionSpace database. Every member of our Bonsai Care Team can access this from any computer or mobile device at any time. In addition, we will be posting some portion of this database along with photos of the trees online for public viewing. The Andrew Mellon Foundation is entirely funding development of the BGLM database that is being handled by Lyrasis.

This joint project with the Pacific Bonsai Museum is first or one the first online databases for a bonsai garden museum in the world. The educational opportunities are unique for the bonsai community as anyone can go online and discover how our bonsai have been developed and view photos of the changes that have taken place with the bonsai over the years in our care.

CollectionSpace, open source software, was originated and led by Museum of the Moving Image in New York, with support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and founding partners Information Services and Technology (IST), at the University of California, Berkeley, Centre for Applied Research in Educational Technologies (CARET) at the University of Cambridge, the Fluid Project at OCAD University, Statens Museum for Kunst (National Gallery of Art, Denmark) and The Walker Art Center. The Institute of Museum and Library Services, through a National Leadership grant, made possible the development and testing of software configurations that serve specific communities of practice.

Lyrasis is the leader of the group of organizations that manage CollectionSpace development. One aspect of managing the development of CollectionSpace is the selection of a Leadership Working Group, similar to a board of directors, to determine the focus of the organization. BGLM has been honored by being by CollectionSpace users to be part of this management team. For more information on this, visit CSpaceElections2016Results. This means that BGLM has a direct influence on the continuing development and operation of our implementation of the CollectionSpace database. Look for the announcement of our new database online in the next few months.

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