Leafgro should be used to increase drainage, the moisture holding capacity and enhance the filtering properties of the soil when establishing a Rain Garden.

What is a Rain Garden?

A "rain garden" is a man-made depression in the ground that is used as a landscape tool to improve water quality. The rain garden forms a "bioretention area"  by collecting water runoff and storing it, permitting it be filtered and slowly absorbed by the soil. The bioretention concept is based on the hydrologic function of forest habitat, in which the forest produces a spongy litter layer that soaks up water and allows it to slowly penetrate the soil layer. The rain garden should be strategically located to intercept water runoff.

Benefits of Rain Gardens

Rain gardens help filter nutrients from rain water running off your driveway or roof, improving water quality. The first flush of rain water is ponded in the depression of the rain garden, and contains the highest concentration of materials washed off impervious surfaces such as roofs, roads, and parking lots. The water-loving plants in the rain garden also take up and use the rain water, reducing problems with excess water or ponding in your yard.

Why is that important? As storm water runs over lawns, streets and other man-made surfaces, it picks up pollutants — phosphorous and nitrogen from fertilizers, bacteria from pet waste and road salt, to name a few — and carries them into local streams and lakes.

When homeowners help water to flow into a rain garden, the plants help absorb that runoff water to keep pollution from washing into local watersheds and to help prevent flash flooding.

Compared with a normal lawn, rain gardens allow about 30 percent more water to soak into the ground.

Here's how to get started building a rain garden:

Find a location. The best sites are those with partial to full sun. Rain gardens should be at least 10 feet away from a home to prevent leaks into your basement.

Water can be directed to gardens that sit far away from a home with plastic piping. But make sure you don't build your garden over a septic system or pipes. Before you break out a shovel, have utility workers come to your home and mark the location of underground lines.

Choose your plants. Use a variety of heights, shapes and textures, and pick plants that bloom at different times during the season. Try incorporating native species. "We like to recommend native plants because they frequently have wildlife benefits," Samuels said.

Dig.  A rain garden is usually 4 to 8 inches deep with the cross-section of a pie tin: the bottom should be flat, with angled sides. Residential rain gardens usually span between 100 and 300 square feet and are built in a kidney or tear-drop shape.

Use dug-up soil to create a berm, or low wall, around three sides of the garden to hold in water during storms. Add compost to increase drainage.

Plant, water and mulch - Your rain garden will need water, especially when it's first installed and during dry spells. Like any garden, rain gardens also need to be weeded, mulched and, eventually, thinned.

Leafgro® "It's a Natural" because it's 
100% Organic!

For additional information please contact: Product Manager, Organics nfaul@menv.com Phone: (410) 729-8630 Toll Free  (888) A1-HUMUS or (888) 214-8687 Fax number (410) 729-8640