Page 27 - Sonoma County Gazette May 2020

RAIN GARDEN con’td from page 26
How A Rain Garden Works
A rain garden does three things; it filters the water coming off your roof, patio and/or driveway, it slows the flow of rainwater from your home
to the local creeks or storm drain systems and it infiltrates much of the water directly into the ground.
Water from your roof, patio or driveway is guided into the rain garden where the plants and soil filter any debris. The filtered water then quickly sinks into the gravel below. The water will remain there for a few days while it continues to nourish
the plants above and infiltrates into the soil below. After most storms the process ends here. Simple! However, after big storms the rain garden really shines.
When a big storm arrives, much of the water coming off your home will get trapped in the rain garden. The bigger your rain garden the bigger the storm it can handle. Eventually, the rain garden will overflow but
it will continue to filter the water.
The oil drips from your car, the bird doo from your roof or the wrapper you accidentally dropped will get captured in the garden. Only filtered water will flow out to our creeks or storm drain systems keeping them clean. It will also take longer for the water to reach our River reducing
the peak flow and helping our River stay in its banks. Lastly, much of
that water will infiltrate into the ground where it will re charge our groundwater ensuring that both we and the River have water in the drier months. There is a lot of good that can come from a simple garden.
Make a peaceful weekend for yourself by planting a rain garden
in your yard. They don’t have to be mowed, weeds help them work and you can contribute to solving water pollution, drought and flooding. This is not an overstatement, there really is a lot of good that can come from a simple garden.
This article was authored by Eric Janzen of the City of Cloverdale, on behalf of RRWA. RRWA (www.rrwatershed.
org) is an association of local public agencies in the Russian River Watershed that have come together to coordinate regional programs for clean water, habitat restoration, and watershed enhancement.
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