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A "Rain Garden" is simply a garden planted in a shallow depression which features plants that will tolerate both wet and dry conditions. Rain gardens soak up rainwater from your roof, yard, driveway, and sometimes even from the street and allows it to soak into the ground rather than letting it run directly into storm drains.
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Rain gardens are an easy, natural way of reducing the amount of water that flows from impervious surfaces into storm sewers. The soil and plants in rain gardens remove pollutants from stormwater, help restore natural infiltration that was lost due to development, and recharge groundwater.
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Why Plant a Rain Garden?
Rain is natural - stormwater isn't. Although most people never think about stormwater, much of the pollution that stormwater carries comes from our everyday activites!
Planting a rain garden may seem like a small thing, but if you calculate the amount of rain that runs off your roof, you would be very surprised. That rain would naturally soak into the ground, but because of development it heads down the street to the storm drain instead, carrying pollution with it.
Keeping rain where it falls with a rain garden is a natural solution. You not only get a lovely garden, you have also helped protect our rivers, streams and lakes from stormwater pollution. You can be part of a beautiful solution!
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Who Should Have a Rain Garden?
EVERYONE! The more rain gardens there are, the more stormwater volume is decreased and water quality improves! Rain gardens are relatively inexpensive and are simple to design and install. If you decide to go ahead and plan a rain garden of your own, use the following guides to take you through the design process. |
Other Benefits - Rain Gardens...
- are an effective tool to decrease runoff, recharge groundwater, reduce flooding, and improve water quality
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can be used by individual home/business owners or can be the main stormwater management practice in a larger system, allowing some communities to forego expensive curb and gutter altogether
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help to relieve the pressure on our municipal storm sewer systems
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add an aesthetically pleasing landscape feature to any yard or park
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require little maintenance once established
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feature deep rooted plants that stabilize soil to prevent erosion during large storm events
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create habitat and attract birds, butterflies, and other wildlife
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help to educate the public about the problems that stormwater runoff create and highlight how EVERYONE can help solve these problems
For more information contact the SWCD at (507) 526-2388. Additional information may also be found at the following links:
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