Focus — Stormwater Management
Landscapes Awash? Your company should employ rain gardens.
By Nina Koziol
The record rainfall this past May left many homes and streets with standing water. Designing a rain garden is often an effective way to capture some of the excess water on a residential client’s site. Flooding is a problem not only in the Chicago metro area, but in places throughout the state. “Potential clients are everywhere,” says Carol Becker, owner of Sage Advice Landscape Design and Consulting in Park Ridge, Illinois. “Clients may live close to rivers or where housing has been built where there was no consideration for drainage. They can be in communities where they allow houses to be built almost to the lot lines.” And, that means less permeable space for water to enter the ground. A one-inch rainfall on an acre produces about 27,000 10
gallons of water. Some of it runs off onto beds, borders and grass, but that’s problematic, too. “Lawn really is impervious because the roots are only 3 to 4 inches deep,” said Grace Koehler, sales manager at Pizzo Native Plant Nursery. “It will eventually permeate the soil, but when it’s dry, the water runs right off the lawn.” In its most basic form, a rain garden is a depression in the ground that’s filled with sand, topsoil and compost and planted with native perennials, non-natives and grasses with deep roots that let water slowly permeate the ground. Besides addressing flooding, putting water back into the soil helps to recharge underground aquifers and reduces (continued on page 12)
The Landscape Contractor July 2020
