by Dennis Dalman
editor@thenewsleaders.com
Sartell residents who would like to learn about rain gardens at an Aug. 4 workshop and tour should register by Aug. 1 by calling Sartell Community Development Technician Nate Keller at 320-258-7316 or by emailing him at Nate.Keller@sartellmn.com.
There is an enrollment limit of 25 people for the rain-garden presentation, made possible by the Sauk River Watershed District and the City of Sartell.
The workshop-tour will take place from 6-7:30 p.m. at Sartell City Hall. After participants receive rain-garden information, a tour will be given of some of the outstanding rain gardens in the city.
Participants will receive books on native plants, informational folders and seed packets to start their own rain gardens. Several gift certificates will be given from area nurseries.
At the workshop, participants will learn how to identify native plants, how to distinguish between native plants and weeds, how best to maintain rain gardens and the options for cost-sharing programs.
A rain garden is a planted depression or hole that allows rainwater runoff from impervious areas (roofs, driveways, walkways and parking lots) to collect in the lower rain-garden area to be slowly absorbed. That way, runoff storm water can be absorbed into the ground rather than running into storm drains, and the river or other waterways.
Rain gardens can help reduce erosion, flooding and keep polluted water out of storm drains, streams and rivers. Rain gardens can reduce the amount of pollution getting into storm drains by 30 percent.
Besides their environmental functionality, rain gardens are aesthetically pleasing as a native-plant flower and grass-plant bed at the edge of a yard. About 10 years ago, the rain-garden concept was introduced to Sartell at city council meetings, and now there are scores of rain gardens all throughout the city, brightening up residential and commercial property while helping prevent erosion and pollution.
Usually, native plants are planted in rain gardens because they are hardy perennials with deep roots that efficiently absorb water and nutrients while being drought-tolerant. Such plants can include shrubs, ferns, wildflowers, tall grasses and other vegetation that comes up every spring. Some rain-garden owners also like to put some annuals in the gardens (often in pots) for variety and for splashes of color.
Rain gardens act as temporary ponds under which runoff water can be slowly absorbed into the ground where it most belongs.
In this cutaway view of a rain garden, a profusion of native vegetation is clustered in plantings in a depression area of a yard. Water from gutters and down spouts from the home rush down to the rain garden where they gather in a pond and are then slowly absorbed by the deep roots of the plants while other excess water slowly filters deeper into the ground. The native plants also attract birds, bees and butterflies.
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