Rain gardens are seen as another great method to improve water quality in our own watershed. Not only do they help to buffer the impact of stormwater runoff, they also offer a beautification to the property and are as much fun to build as they are to watch. 

        The concept behind rain gardens is simple, yet it can help so many problems with our home landscapes and community watersheds. The idea is to lead stormwater runoff into a shallow basin. There the water is allowed to soak into the ground, rather than create runoff. The basin is planted with a variety of native plants, whose long and extensive root systems help the water travel down into the ground. In the summer, these long root systems help the plants reach moisture further down underground.

     Although the principles are the same, the means of creating a rain garden can range from simply digging a shallow basin below a downspout on your house or as complex as installing a rain water conveyance system and bio-infilltration basin. The two biggest factors to building a rain garden are: 1) how much rain water would drain into the system and 2)how much rain water the ground can absorb. From these two figrures, a variety of designs and solutions can be made which best fit the site and client.