Rain Gardens

April showers bring May flowers, but they also create storm water that quickly runs into streams and lakes, carrying with it pollutants and sediments that harm wildlife and human health. To help reduce storm water runoff we incorporate rain gardens and biofiltration plantings into our landscape designs. A rain garden is simply a bowl shaped garden about 6" deep that is positioned where it can catch storm water and allow it to percolate into groundwater. It is designed and constructed to drain within 24 hours to reduce standing water, and it is planted with species that can handle periods of inundation, but also dry soil conditions. The cousin to the Rain Garden is the biofiltration planting - it's a planting of wetland natives within a moving stream of water. The idea is that the roots form a filter mat that collects fine sediments before exiting to a lake or other surface water.