Re: Marketing Problems For Rain Gardens

**l*@juno.com**

Hi Jeff et al,

This is a subject in which I am very interested and personally involved.
I understand that not all gardeners are environmentalists, but many of us
are; hence, the push for native plants. The entire topic is better
understood, if you also have a governmental perspective. New Jersey is a
home rule state, which means that local municipalities (not the county)
make all the laws to which local residents are subject. Superimposed on
those are county and state regs. Our state DEP passed very stringent
stormwater management rules within the past five years, that require that
all stormwater be disposed of on-site. 

While we do have stormwater sewers, those that serve housing developments
empty into the dreaded detention (or retention, or infiltration) basin, a
visually hideous engineered method of holding large volumes of water
until it can safely disperse to groundwater, natural streams, ponds, etc.
These are generally grass monocultures or rip rap which, if not properly
maintained become weedy, overgrown maintenance nightmares. Suffice it to
say that anyone who can get away with not maintaining one will continue
to not maintain it. Right now, there are no detention basin "police,"
although I imagine this is ultimately the responsibility of our
overworked zoning officer.

One of my life's missions is to eradicate this type of detention basin
first, from my own town, then from the state of New Jersey, and then from
the face of the Earth, replacing them with stormwater gardens. A
stormwater garden is NOT a rain garden. The scale and purpose are vastly
different. I have found it very difficult to have conversations about
this with gardeners and non-gardeners alike, because people immediately
assume I'm talking about rain gardens. Rain gardens are more like an
alternative to a drywell, or a bog garden that operates on your roof
runoff (I have one), but they absolutely are not designed to handle the
runoff, for example, from a steeply sloping 5-acre lot.

This is no laughing matter. We have one instance of a Hatfields and
McCoys style feud over driveway runoff being directed onto a neighbor's
property, in which one of the residents attacked the other with a prybar
in the public road. Our town became involved because the runoff was also
causing flooding and erosion of the public (albeit dirt) road.

New Jersey DEP's preferred (Best Management Practice) for
detention/retention/infiltration basins is a vegetated stormwater garden,
also called a Marsh Meadow Garden. For anyone close to Morristown, NJ,
such a garden serves the vast parking lot of the the Frelinghuysen
Arboretum. For those who are not, Chapter 7 of the NJDEP Stormwater Best
Management Practices Manual can be downloaded from the NJDEP website:
www.state.nj.us/dep/ 

Jeff, the early entries into this field in our area, such as Pinelands
Nursery (a wholesale grower and supplier of native plants), became
experts at environmental restoration, as well as creating stormwater
gardens. Stormwater gardens that use native plants offer a more
attractive, low/no maintenance, and habitat-conserving alternative to the
monoculture detention basins that drive out native species of both plants
and animals. In our area, the first demonstration rain garden was on the
grounds of Rutgers University, which also sponsors the Ag Extension
Service's Master Gardener Program. Rutgers is also heavily into
environmental restoration/preservation programs, so that would add more
punch to the push for native plants.

BTW, my own experience with my soggy, boggy subsoil clay patch is that we
hand-excavated about 4-6 inches of "soil, " replaced it with 2" - 4"-inch
gravel that we had lying around for another project, put the same poor
soil back on top, and planted it up with free TB iris and Ligularia from
a friend. This spot is in hot, baking sun all day. The iris did fine. The
Ligularia's leaves were a little off-color the first year, but the plants
have since adapted and are thriving, despite the fact that we have done
nothing to improve the soil. In fact, the Ligularia are taking over.

Regards,
Lois J. de Vries
visit http://loisdevries.blogspot.com

On Fri, 3 Aug 2007 15:19:01 -0400 Jeff Ball <jeffball@usol.com> writes:
> I thought there might be some interest in my blog entry for today.
> 
> Rain Gardens Revealed!
> I finally understand what it takes to construct a rain garden.  
> Nancy  
> and I spent a morning this week listening to several experts on the  
> 
> subject.  We came away with the concern that the ?rain garden  
> enthusiasts? are taking the same path as was taken by the first  
> organic gardeners and the folks into native plants.  Here are the  
> rules.  You can?t break our rules.  Yes, it takes a lot of work but  
> 
> that?s the way it is, so deal with it.  They are limiting their  
> market to a very small percentage of the population.
> 
> In other words, we don?t think the rain garden, as proposed by the  
> 
> folks here in Detroit is going to go very far.  It is a wonderful  
> concept and one that is desperately needed in virtually every  
> community in this country, but we think it is already doomed by 
> rigid  
> minutia.
> 
> We learned that the Kansas City government has decided to support 
> the  
> construction  of 10,000 rain gardens in the city over the next five  
> 
> years.  We have to look into how they are motivating their citizens  
> 
> to jump on that band wagon.  It is certainly an ambitious and  
> righteous goal.
> 
> One of the problems we saw here in Detroit, and I?ve seen it in many 
>  
> articles in the literature is that the rain garden has become linked 
>  
> to native plants.  The impression one gets is that you can?t have a  
> 
> true rain garden unless it is planted with natives.  That is a  
> mistake in our view.  The concept and function of a rain garden  
> should stand alone.  You can plant anything you want in your rain  
> garden as long as the plants can live in a mix of 60% finished  
> compost and 40% sharp sand (builder?s sand), covered with three  
> inches of wood chip mulch.
> 
> Another problem that became clear at this seminar was that in most  
> cases, the rain garden area needs to be dug out 3 to 4 feet deep,  
> unless it is already very sandy. That is a lot of work and often  
> requires a back hoe.  The space is then filled with the compost and  
> 
> sand mixture that drains very well and still holds water at the same 
>  
> time.  We see articles about simply planting water loving plants in  
> 
> the wet area and call it a rain garden.  Not so.  The function of a  
> 
> rain garden is to help reduce the amount of storm water going into  
> 
> any sewer system.  The garden is positioned to handle the water  
> coming off the roof or the water running down the driveway.  Just  
> planting some water loving plants in wet clay does not do anything  
> 
> except maybe create a pretty garden to look at.
> 
> What we need to do is translate the design of a rain garden into a  
> 
> bunch of very flexible choices, so most folks can buy into it once  
> 
> they decide they can do something about excess rain water into the  
> 
> sewer system.
> 
> Jeff Ball
> jeffball@usol.com
> 810-724-8581
> Check out my daily blog at www.gardeneryardener.blogspot.com
> Check out my extensive web site at www.yardener.com
> 
> 
> 
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