2024 Rain Gardens to the Rescue Installations
Our Friends of the Rouge Restoration team has been steadily working to install five community-scale rain gardens as part of the Rain Gardens to the Rescue (RGTTR) program, funded by National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. Participants completed their rain garden application in February of this year, and five rain gardens were awarded to Transform Communities Network in River Rouge, Salina Intermediate, Lowrey Middle, and Oakman Elementary Schools in Dearborn, and Allegria Village Retirement Community in Dearborn.
Our RGTTR partners first met at Workshop 1 – Introduction to Rain Gardens – in April. Here, they learned how rain gardens catch and absorb rainwater in place, reducing the volume of water that eventually reaches our Rouge River via the overburdened stormwater systems. They learned that rain gardens reduce flooding, erosion, and pollution in the Rouge, and that the beautiful Michigan native plants also provide much-needed habitat for songbirds and pollinators, including butterflies.
Also in early spring, our Friends of the Rouge Restoration team members visited each site to choose the best location for their rain gardens. Then, FOTR landscape designers drew up plans for all five rain gardens, which averaged 1000 square feet each. With input from participants in Workshop 2 – Rain Garden Design Exercise – specific color palettes and native plants were chosen.
To build the rain gardens, soil needed to be excavated. Over a period of several weeks, each of the five rain garden spots were excavated, and compost was added.
During excavations at Lowrey, our team was delighted to have some spontaneous support from neighbors! One lovely woman brought us ice cold bottled water; a neighbor across the street helped us clean up the sidewalk by bringing his power washer; a great bunch of children had fun helping to plant grass seed and covering it with straw! Our FOTR team was heartened to receive these many welcoming expressions of gratitude and kindness from the community as we worked onsite.
As of now, three of these sites’ gardens have been planted, and we have two more to go! The final Workshop 3 – Maintenance – will provide our RGTTR recipients with the hands-on instruction needed to keep these gardens prospering and doing their job of keeping our hometown Rouge River cleaner.
Friends, you are invited to join us in our next rain garden planting day at Lowrey Middle School in Dearborn on Saturday, September 7, from 10 am – 1 pm. Come early to join in a great morning of planting and community, as we plant these 6 small rain gardens on the grounds of this magnificent 100-year old school. For more information and to register for this and other volunteer opportunities, please visit:
