BUILD YOUR OWN RAIN GARDEN
Schrader Center Workshop Teachers the Why and How of Rain Gardens

WHEELING, W.Va. (March 25, 2009) - -Rain gardens are rapidly gaining popularity as an easy, attractive an inexpensive landscape feature that individuals can use to help reduce their contribution to storm water runoff, which is generally recognized as the single largest threat to water quality in the United States.

Oglebay Institute’s Schrader Environmental Education Center will host “Backyard Landscapes: Designing Your Own Rain Garden,” a special workshop that is part of the 2009 Living Green Lecture Series. The program takes place at 10 a.m. Saturday, April 11 at the Schrader Center in Oglebay, and participants will leave the workshop with a customized design for a rain garden that can be easily installed on their own property.

On the surface, a rain garden simply looks like an attractive garden. Its importance lies in how it gets its water and what happens to the water once it arrives in the garden.

“Storm water runoff is precipitation that does not infiltrate into the ground or evaporate due to impervious land surfaces like roofs, driveways, sidewalks, etc.,” Schrader Center director Eriks Janelsins said. “Rain gardens are planted, shallow depressions that mimic the natural absorption and pollutant removal abilities of a forest by allowing storm water runoff to be collected and slowly absorbed into the soil.”

Janelsins said curbing runoff is important because surges in rainwater being directly channeled into our waterways alter the quality of water in our rivers and creeks. In fact, the Congressional Research Service reported in 2007 that storm water runoff accounted for 50 percent of water pollution problems in the U.S.

Storm water carries a variety of pollutants: oil, gas and other residues from automobiles; metals such as cooper, lead and zinc from industrial sites; animal and human waste from leaky septic systems; fertilizers and pesticides; chloride used to de-ice roads and trash dropped on roadways and sidewalks.

“Rain is not the problem. It’s the pollution that the rainwater picks up as it runs over manmade surfaces.” Janelsins said. “Rain gardens capture rainwater, hold it and then slowly release it into the soil. The rush of a storm is slowed and cleaned- quickly, neatly and naturally.”

Janelsins said rain gardens do not have to be large or complicated. They just need to be positioned, dug and planted correctly.

“This is one of the easiest and most cost-effective ways for homeowners to improve the water quality in their community,” he said.

Dr. Kathleen Patnode of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will conduct the April 11 workshop that will teach participants about the benefits rain gardens provide to the property owner, municipality, wildlife and streams and rivers. Participants will also learn how to design and create a functional, low maintenance rain garden.

Participants should bring a lidded, clear, quart glass jar that is half full with soil from their yard and a drawing of their property that includes dimensions of buildings and driveways. They will learn a simple soil test to determine what soil amendments are needed to achieve appropriate water infiltration rates and will calculate the size of the rain garden needed to accommodate water from the impervious surfaces on their property Each person will create a layout of a potential rain garden within their existing vegetation and structures and will be given information on selecting and positioning native plants suited for the sunlight exposure, water conditions and soil type.

“People will leave with all the know-how to build a rain garden that is low-tech, inexpensive, sustainable and esthetically beautiful,” Janelsins said.

The cost of the workshop is $15. For more information or to register, call the Schrader Environmental Education Center at 304.242.6855.