What is the first visual you get in your mind when you hear the term “rain garden?” Many folks picture a pond with a few plants in it and maybe a lily pad floating around. As defined by Wikipedia: “A rain garden is a planted depression that allows rainwater runoff from impervious urban areas like roofs, driveways, walkways, and compacted lawn areas the opportunity to be absorbed. This reduces rain runoff by allowing stormwater to soak into the ground (as opposed to flowing into storm drains and surface waters which causes erosion, water pollution, flooding, and diminished groundwater).”
The Central Ohio Rain Garden Initiative (CORGI), founded in October 2007, is a collaborative effort to promote the benefits of rain gardens for clean water and community beautification. They provide people with education and technical assistance to help with rain garden assessment, design, and planting plans. Stephanie Suter, a Habitat Conservationist with Franklin Soil and Water Conservation District, is the Chair of CORGI. She has worked tirelessly to bring the initiative closer to their highest level goal of collecting 1 billion gallons of stormwater per year via rain gardens. As of the end of 2009, there are 71 rain gardens collecting 3.6 million gallons of stormwater per year in Central Ohio. With the projects planned for 2010, this number will continue to grow this year.
Much of the work that CORGI has accomplished was made possible by an Ohio EPA Environmental Education Fund grant. This grant has funded the creation and maintenance of CORGI’s website: CentralOhioRainGardens.org. This grant also allowed CORGI to target several neighborhoods in Franklin County for rain garden education and selection for a neighborhood rain garden implementation project in 2010. To date, the grant has allowed education materials to reach over 250,000 Central Ohio residents through brochures, workshops, newsletters, news articles, and television news stories. The Brook Run neighborhood in Westerville was chosen for the neighborhood rain garden project. This grant provided funds for monitoring equipment to be installed, and will fund the 17 residential rain gardens to be installed this spring within the Brook Run community. The monitoring equipment will allow CORGI to measure velocity flow and determine the amount of stormwater detained by the newly installed rain gardens.
The CORGI website has over 26 registered non-residential rain gardens. The COSI rain garden, on the lawn to the north of the main entrance to COSI, is among the most visible of the rain gardens. This rain garden was made possible by the Harry E. and Corinne Babbert and Dr. Thelma I. Schoonover funds of the Columbus Foundation. Several other local organizations also assisted with the design and creation of the garden. In addition to the gardens mentioned above, there are many residential rain gardens registered with CORGI. Each of these gardens gets CORGI closer to the goal of 1 billion gallons of stormwater collected annually. The next time you get the itch to redesign your landscape, consider adding a rain garden, or even a rain barrel (but that’s a different topic).
CORGI has many upcoming events. Please visit their website to see what exciting new things are happening in the world of water quality improvement in Central Ohio, including a new rain garden at OSU.