I am a life-time, card carrying, Tree-Hugger. To paraphrase a famous Tammy Wynette song, “I was crunchy when crunchy wasn’t cool”. I’ve even done some time with the environmental group GreenPeace USA. So, I could not help but notice that lately everywhere I go I see “green” this and “green” that. There’s even a newly inaugurated “green” channel way up in the hinter lands of cable television. It appears that the unexpected success of the Al Gore
Water garden Ladew Gardens. Images by Roberta Bogash
documentary An Inconvenient Truth flanked by more than a couple of devastating storms has renewed the interest of the generally laize-faire public and the marketers at large in what can be done to help keep our planet safe for future generations.
There is no limit to the products that we can buy to help us hug our trees a little tighter. But the fact remains, as all the greenwashed products hit the store shelves, (imagine me rolling my eyes and shake my head) that the simple things like planting a garden will accomplish more than using all the semi-well meaning products that are hitting the store shelves.
Most naturally managed gardens will help the environment, but one type does the most for the planet. These gardens aren’t just any kind of garden they’re called Rain Gardens and they are a fundamental tool in helping to reduce the amount of pollution that is choking our groundwater, streams, lakes, bays and oceans.
A Rain Garden is different from a regular ornamental flower bed. This is not to say that Rain Gardens are not aesthetically attractive but they serve a purpose more intrinsically valuable than being mere eye candy. It is the primary function of this type of garden to solve drainage problems, address erosion issues, and improve water quality.
The beauty of this type of garden is multi-faceted. Not only does it create an interesting vista it also provides an intercept site for storm water runoff before it enters the waterways. Rain Gardens are also excellent sources of wildlife habitats.
Storm water runoff, often referred to as non-point source (NPS) pollution, has become a particular problem as the world’s population increases. Managing this problem is the primary issue to insuring healthy water quality. As our population increases we create more and more impervious surfaces. Impervious surfaces include; parking lots, roof tops, and road ways. These are surfaces that are incapable of absorbing water. It is not unusual for an urban area to have at least 45% impervious surface.
When it rains, the water, which includes air borne pollution, lawn waste such as pesticides and pet waste, agricultural waste, and oil and gas from roadways and driveways, ends up with nowhere to go except into the drainage and sewage system. The output of these drainage systems are the local streams, rivers and lakes. This is what is referred to as “stormwater runoff”. The result is the degradation of water quality.
Water quality degradation is a problem that goes back as far as the civilization of man and it has become worse with increased urbanization. One of many notable events occurred in the late 1800’s when the city of Chicago’s water had become so horribly toxic that civil engineers decided that the only way to save the water of Lake Michigan from becoming completely undrinkable was to reverse the direction of the Chicago River away from lake. It was a monumental task and in retrospect it was a questionable tactic. Fortunately building a rain gardens is a much less drastic undertaking than reversing the direction of a river.
When rain gardens where first developed in 1993 by Larry Coffman, head of the Prince George’s County, Maryland environmental programs, the goal of the project was to investigate cost effective, lower maintenance methods to improve infiltration systems for septic systems and storm water handling installations. Mr. Coffman’s research led him to study the function of the upland ecosystems. The result would be to create specific plantings with the goal of removing pollutants and facilitate the absorption of stormwater runoff.
- Part two of our look at Rain Gardens will be posted on June 23, 2009. -
3 Comments
Really interesting…I can’t wait for the next installment.
I’m interested in what type of plants she suggests. We have such an area that runs on the edge of our property. It’s great for wildlife but degradates the banks. I’d like to plant something that will help hold the soil and control the out-of-control weeds that congregate along the run.
All good questions.
Fortunately there are some outstanding website for the diy-er. The Virginia Dept. of Forestery goes into elaborate detail with both design and installation info and plant lists at; http://www.dof.org.
And, there are also the good people at the Low Impact Development Center that in conjuntion with National Fish and Wildlife Foundation have created an extremely impressive website at http://www.lowimpactdesign.org. Check out the \Rain Garden Templates\ for lots of great design ideas. I am especially impressed by this site because the gardens are catergorized by soil type and amount of sun. (Rain gardens are not always full sun) There are lots of great ideas for beginners and advanced gardeners, and for the most part the garden template sizes are realistic, 100-450 square feet. Though I occasionally question some of the plant choices the overall concept is outstanding.
Beyond that, I’m always happy to do site visits for a reasonable fee. You can always contact me through Punk Rock Gardens for more information about the landscape design services I provide.
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