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Rain gardens, bioswales, and other vegetated storm water treatment features have recently gained notoriety for their ability to absorb storm water and reduce runoff. Such features function in the landscape by slowing-down water, allowing sediment and other contaminants to settle out before discharging into local streams, ponds, lakes, and rivers. Water suitable for treatment through these features can originate from several sources like open land, parking lots, rooftops, other impervious surfaces, and basement sump pumps. Depending on the soil type and the amount of vegetation in the storm water feature, runoff can be substantially reduced in three ways: by infiltration (into the soil); evaporation (directly to the atmosphere); and transpiration (indirectly into the atmosphere through plants). Microorganisms in the moist soil, particularly around the roots (rhizosphere) of wetland plants, help breakdown and metabolize many of the storm water contaminants. Often it is the fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, and sediments that originate from our own yards. In urban and suburban areas these storm water features, when planted with a diverse array of native plants, can also function as significant habitat for a variety of native wildlife, including water-loving birds, amphibians, butterflies, dragonflies, and other aquatic insects. Rain gardens can be designed to have small, shallow pools of open water, simulating a natural emergent wetland, or hold water only briefly or seasonally, simulating a natural wet meadow or wet prairie. If properly designed, a wide variety of native wetland, wet prairie, and wet meadow plants can thrive, reproduce, and persist in these constructed habitats. You simply build it with a diverse mixture of appropriate native plants and the native creatures will come! We provide site assessments, designs, installation, and management for rain gardens, bioswales, and other storm water treatment features. We only design and plant storm water features using local ecotype native plants, we do not incorporate ornamentals or cultivars. [Note: Because there are so many variables that can affect plant survival, HABITATS guarantees the establishment of our native plants when installed by our staff, however, we do not guarantee our seeds or plants when installed by others]. |
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