PPDL Picture of the Week
March 28, 2016
Rain Gardens Provide a Sustainable Landscape
Feature
John Orick, Purdue Master Gardener State Coordinator, Department
of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture, Purdue University
Have you ever wondered how to
handle a drainage or erosion prone area in your home landscape? Well, maybe
these problem areas could be just the place for a rain garden. A rain garden is
a garden designed with a depression to catch stormwater runoff from your
landscape, driveway, sidewalk, or house roof. Instead of stormwater runoff
flowing across your driveway, sidewalk or other impervious surfaces, bringing
potential pollutants with it to the stormwater drain and out to rivers, lakes,
or streams, this water stays in the rain garden and soaks into the soil. The
garden is placed in the landscape and sized to catch the amount of water from
the impervious surfaces flowing into it. For example, a 1,500 square foot home
can produce over 5,000 gallons of stormwater runoff from 1 inch of rainfall.
Likewise, larger industrial sites such as a shopping center with over 200
square feet of roof and over 350,000 square feet of parking area produces over
285,000 gallons of water runoff! The plants used in a rain garden are selected
based on where they will be planted in the garden. Plants that do well in dryer
conditions are chosen for the slope and top of the depression. Plants that grow
well under temporary flooding (24 hours or less) are selected for the floor of
the depression. Both native plants and horticultural cultivars can be used in
rain gardens. However, native plants are often recommended due to their deep
rooting characteristics. Rain gardens play an important role in stormwater
runoff conservation and in the prevention of water pollution.
Related Articles,
Publications, and Websites
Purdue
Rainscaping Education Program, https://ag.purdue.edu/Extension/rainscaping
The
Blue Thumb Guide to Raingardens: Design and Installation for Homeowners in the
Upper Midwest, Rusty
Schmidt, Dan Shaw, and David Dods, 2007.
Clear
Choices for Clean Water, http://www.clearchoicescleanwater.org
Wabash
River Enhancement Corporation,
http://www.wabashriver.net/
Rain
Garden App, University of Connecticut, http://nemo.uconn.edu/tools/app/raingarden.htm
The
Southern Lake Michigan Rain Garden Manual,
Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant, http://www.iisgcp.org/catalog/l2l/LMrain_garden.php
Rain Gardens Go With the Flow, Rosie Lerner, Purdue Yard and Garden News, November
17, 2011, www.agriculture.purdue.edu/agcomm/newscolumns/archives/YGnews/2011/November/111117YG.html
Purdue Horticulture Building Rain Garden in Action, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrPX0s5H-kY