We are excited to report that the first stage of the Rain Garden Program has been completed. During the past two months, Save the Sound has worked intensively with homeowners in Town of Southington and has successfully planted nine residential rain gardens.
The Rain Garden Program, part of the Quinnipiac River Watershed Groundwater Restoration Project, began in early May with the installation of the program’s first rain garden at 1218 Woodruff Street. Since then, STS staff has been working throughout Southington to plan, arrange volunteers, and order plants and materials, all the while dealing with rainy days, low and high temperatures, rocky soils.
On Saturday May 18th, the program moved on to 112 Skyline Drive, to the home of Matt Shepherd, for its second event. It was a bright and sunny day, with cool breezes, and a lot of smiles. Next, Save the Sound staff members and volunteers fought the rain and chilly weather to build a 65-sq. ft. rain garden at the home of Kimberly and Warren Sciola at 296 Harness Drive. The 4th installation was on June 1st. Despite the 90-degree day, another impressive rain garden was built at the home of Lizz Johnson and Will Mauer at 258 Curtiss Street. On June 8th, the 5th rain garden was planted at 4 Tanglewood Drive at the home of Ray and Linda Roy.
The final four rain gardens were built in only 2 weeks! Beginning with the 6th rain garden, planted at the home of Marie and Matt Lemay at 210 Hobart Street on Friday, June 14th. At 242 square feet, it was our largest rain garden, but a great group of volunteers showed up to ensure that it was done quickly and well. Saturday, June 15th brought the program to the home of Ayu and Gary Webster for our 7th rain garden event at 60 Tanglewood Drive. On Friday, June 21st, we visited the home of George and Peggy Phorilak at 1297 East Street for our 8th planting. An otherwise standard installation took an interesting twist when we decided to take a different approach and try a two-tier rain garden. The result was a beautifully-constructed masterpiece. Finally, we arrived at 120 Forest Lane on Saturday, June 22nd for our ninth and final rain garden of the season. At the home of Stephen and Beth Wood, alongside some of our most committed volunteers and a great group from Viridian Energy, we brought together the knowledge and skills developed over so many weeks of hard work for another beautiful and functional rain garden.
The residential rain gardens we’ve built will continue to protect drinking water supplies in the Quinnipiac River Watershed for years to come. Like many other green infrastructure techniques, these rain gardens will redirect rain water areas where the it can infiltrate into the ground naturally. By reducing the amount of pollutants that flow off of roofs, driveways, and parking lots and into local streams and rivers, we can insure cleaner drinking water and healthier ecosystems.
We would like to thank all of our amazing volunteers. Without their help and dedication to our goals, we would not have been able to build 9 rain gardens and capture runoff from over 6600 square feet of roofs across Southington.
We will continue to work on the project throughout the summer months and prepare for more potential rain garden installations in the fall.
To learn more about this and other green infrastructure projects, please visit reducerunoff.org.
Posted by Maria Llanos Martell, intern for CFE/Save the Sound
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