Crimson Valley Blog
5May/100

Rain Gardens

Cutting the curb allows more runoff from the street to soak into the rain garden. photo courtesy of thecoves.ca

A rain garden is a depression in the landscape planted with native plantings that allows rainwater to runoff of impervious surfaces such as roofs, driveways, walkways, parking lots and even compacted lawns and gives it an opportunity to soak into the ground rather than into the stormwater systems.

Do areas of your landscape collect water? With spring season rainfall, you may notice the low spots in your landscape where water flows naturally.  Turn those undesirable low spaces into functional and beautiful rain gardens. Rain gardens are a great way to beautify an unsightly area and reduce the amount of stormwater runoff. Designed with native plants, these gardens break up soil, filter water from impervious surfaces, and replenish our depleting ground water supply. If a low spot does not occur naturally, create one and place in between areas where run off occurs; eliminating much of the water in its path from reaching the storm water collection systems.

31Mar/104

Rain Barrels

rain barrel made from recycled wine barrel

image courtesy of Barrel Depot

Spring is finally here! We should expect to see plenty of rain this season. Did you know that you could collect the rainwater falling on your roof and reuse it in your garden? When planning your landscape for this season, considering how installing rain barrels at your home will benefit the environment and your wallet. Rain Barrels are a great way to recycle rainwater. Rainwater is nutrient rich and naturally soft. This is far more beneficial to your landscape and vegetable or herb garden than watering with chemically treated municipal water. Not only will you be saving money by cutting the use on your municipal water to water your garden you will be helping the environment be preventing some of that water from running off your property and  into the storm water collection system.