[Source: Arizona Republic, Coty Delores Miranda, 10-6-2009] — After more than two years in the planning, the Kyrene de la Esperanza Discovery Garden and Outdoor Classroom is getting underway with a pond building and tree planting set for Saturday. Volunteers are still being sought to help all day or anytime from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
With the expert guidance of Paul Holderman, founder of Pond Gnome and creator of the Koi Pond in the Phoenix Zoo entrance, volunteers will help lay the liner on the 25-foot-long pond, install a pump to recycle water in a free-falling stream over rocks, line the edges with river rock and incorporate water plants. If possible, small native trees will also be planted in an effort to move to the second and third phases of the Discovery Garden creation.
In 2006, the Esperanza Discovery Garden began with an application to the Arizona Game and Fish Department for a $10,000 Heritage Fund grant — monies derived from Lottery ticket sales. They received the grant in May 2007. [Note: to read the full story, click here.]