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| Photo Credit: ©John Gishnock III, courtesy of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources |
| Rain gardens help filter runoff, protecting local water resources. |
As a newcomer to coastal Florida in the early 1980s, I watched with amazement as the streets of the low-lying barrier island where I lived filled with swift-running water every time it rained. I also remember “old-timers” telling me ruefully, “It wasn’t like this in the ’50s. Now there’s too much concrete. The water’s got no place to go.”
While the village fixed the sewers and drains to accommodate the runoff, it also added even more concrete with all the new developments that sprung up. Local property owners elevated their lots and houses to keep them from being flooded during hurricanes. Today, storm water runoff – polluted with pesticides, fertilizer, gasoline, oil and other chemicals – continues to flow into the storm drains and out into the ocean, harming marine life. And it’s not just happening in Florida – this scenario is repeated all over the country in urban areas where there’s simply not enough green space. | Add Photo to Journal |  | | Photo Credit: Courtesy of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | | This mature rain garden may be small, but it works perfectly. |
It’s easy to feel overwhelmed with the enormity of fixing our environmental problems, but if everyone did even a little something, it would go a long way toward making the world a healthier place to live. One tiny thing that each of us who has access to a small plot of land can do is plant a rain garden.
I’d never heard of rain gardens when I lived in Florida – one of the rainiest states in the country. But apparently this gardening phenomenon had already started on the East Coast back in the 1980s, and the idea’s now spread nationwide. The concept of a rain garden is simple enough: The idea is to take a section of your yard and create a shallow, depressed area where you channel the runoff from your house. Adding native plants helps slow down the water so it can be absorbed. Not only does a rain garden diminish the amount of pollutants entering fresh water sources, it helps recharge groundwater. A garden this simple means you can feel good about helping the planet, as well as get all the benefits of a beautiful space that attracts birds, butterflies and dragonflies.
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