Why You Should Make A Rain Garden This Spring

METRO DETROIT, MI — April showers bring May flowers, along with ever-increasing flooding and water runoff that can pollute our rivers, streams and Great Lakes. Detroit residents can help prevent the pollution of our Great Lakes and beautify their landscaping by installing rain gardens.

A rain garden controls puddles and keeps basements dry by soaking up water running off of roofs, driveways, walkways, and other hard surfaces. Rain gardens are designed using native plants and natural flood controls and usually feature attractive native wildflowers that attract butterflies and hummingbirds. They also help prevent floods and pollution in rivers by capturing water that might otherwise carry lawn chemicals and mud into the river.

Rain gardens are drought tolerant, low maintenance and environmentally friendly—in addition to being beautiful to look at and providing a natural habitat to native Michigan species. They can be designed in a wide variety of styles, from country cottage to formal and manicured.

The Friends of the Rouge, the Clinton River Watershed Council and Huron River Watershed Council all offer detailed information on their website, including step-by-step plans and detailed diagrams.

“Rain gardens are an important tool in keeping our rivers, lakes and streams free of the pollution that comes in with runoff,” says Rebecca Esselman, watershed planner with the Huron River Watershed Council. “We’re using them in yards, along streets and in parks in many of our river restoration and protection projects.”

The Friends of the Rouge are hoping to see 1,000 rain gardens created in the Rouge watershed.

"Our gardeners created their rain gardens to help keep rainwater out of Detroit's combined sewer system to help protect the Rouge and Detroit Rivers from sewage overflows during rainy weather," said Cyndi Ross, River Restoration Program Manager for Friends of the Rouge. "When you ask them about their gardens they don't talk about sewage—they talk about observing wildlife they hadn't seen in decades and how the gardens have become places where neighbors gather. They also talk about an improved quality of life."

For more detailed information about how to create your own rain garden, and how the Southeast Michigan Watershed Organizations can help, visit therouge.org, crwc.org, detroitriver.org, or hrwc.org.