Rain Gardens for Beauty, Wildlife, and Stormwater Control
Dominican Priory Campus, Room 259, 7200 Division Street, River Forest Map
Presented by: Monica Buckley and Charlotte Adelman
Charlotte Adelman is co-author, with her husband Bernie Schwartz, of The Midwestern Native Garden , Prairie Directory of North America, and the forthcoming Midwestern Native Shrubs and Trees. Monica Buckley is owner of Red Stem Native Landscapes, which consults, designs, installs, and stewards native plant gardens.
Presentation Description:
Rainfall of 1" on a 2,ooo square foot roof will result in 1,200 gallons of water. Instead of sending it down the overloaded sewer system, capture all that storm water and do some good with it by creating a rain garden. A rain garden is a shallow basin that accepts water from a downspout or low spot. Planted with deep-rooted native plants that absorb water and send it back to the water table where soil organisms purify it as it goes, rain gardens provide butterflies, bees, birds and other pollinators with the food, shelter, and reproductive sites while helping to prevent water from running off into streets where it collects pollutants that end up in our waterways.
