Rain garden

A Rain garden functions like a native forest to help slow, soak up, and filter polluted urban runoff from downspouts, driveways, parking lots and other hard surfaces. Typically, a rain garden is a designed shallow recessed surface containing flowers, small trees, shrubs and grasses designed to tolerate wet winters and dry summers. Also known as bioretention ponds, rain gardens are typically designed by landscape architects or designers to reduce the rate of flow of runoff from heavy rains or snow melt and filter the pollutant load originating from road treatment chemicals and other sources.

Rain gardens are beneficial to local environments in many different ways. Especially important in areas prone to flash flooding in creeks and rivers, they provide first-stage and localized flood control. They also improve water quality by filtering runoff. They also encourage sustainability for wildlife and biodiversity and encourage diverse planting opportunities. Rain gardens also have the potential to create aesthetic landscaping sites, and potentially tie buildings and their surrounding environments together in environmentally advantageous ways. Altogether, they provide significant solutions to important environmental problems that affect many aspects of life.