During bad rainstorms, some of our homes and streets get flooded and storm water rushes into our streams and into the Long Island Sound carrying with it pollutants which degrade our water quality.
There are a number of eco-friendly ways to deal with this storm water problem and one of the most exciting and beautiful is the creation of rain gardens. The City of New Rochelle has created a demonstration rain garden at Ward Elementary School with the Ward PTA through the assistance of John Jay Landscape Development, so that our residents can learn how rain gardens can help reduce storm water runoff and flooding and filter out pollutants from the water.
What is a Rain Garden?
Rain gardens are planted to reduce storm water runoff by absorbing water into the ground. They are shallow depression, sometimes underlain with a porous soil mix and/or perforated pipe, and planted with hearty native plants that are both drought and flood resistant. Rain gardens dramatically reduce lawn maintenance because they do not need to be mowed, fertilized, or watered.
Rain gardens collect the water that runs over lawns, roofs, roads, and parking lots during a storm. This storm water carries pollutants such as lawn chemicals, oils, and grit that building up on these surfaces. As the storm water percolates down into the ground, the pollutants are filtered out so that the water entering the water table which ultimately flows into our streams and into Long Island Sound is clean.