A Lesson in 'Rainscaping' -- Rain Gardens

Crabtownboy · Sep 22, 2008

By Joel M. Lerner
Saturday, September 20, 2008; Page F05

It's been raining a lot lately, this being hurricane season. While it's good to leave our drought of the past three years behind, it's clear that sudden drenching rains, or sustained heavy rain, can cause flooding and serious damage.

When water falls too hard or for too long, it doesn't get absorbed into the soil; it runs off into storm drains or streams, and eventually into the Potomac River and Chesapeake Bay. This contributes to pollution by carrying fertilizer, pesticides and roadway contaminants straight to waterways.

It's possible, though, to harness and clean this water.

"Ideally, most if not all of the water that falls on a site should stay on the site," said Zora Lathan, executive director of the Chesapeake Ecology Center in Annapolis. But "we've leveled out the land and paved over paradise."

One solution to cleaning up the waterways, Lathan said, is to put contours back into the land by creating rain gardens. These are gardens that imitate nature and allow rain to infiltrate the soil, be filtered of pollutants and recharge the ground water. "We all contribute to storm-water runoff, and we need to be part of the solution."
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dy...8/09/19/AR2008091901656.html?hpid=smartliving

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