Reduce Gardening Costs with Rain Water

There are many types of gardens – rose gardens, vegetable gardens, and even “rain gardens.” If you want to reduce your gardening costs, better manage rain water runoff, or make use of an otherwise too-wet area in your yard, then this is the presentation for you.

The August 7 Lake-to-Prairie Wild Ones chapter meeting will focus on rain gardens, providing information on the reasons that people install these landscape features, where they should be placed in the home landscape, how to construct one, which are the best plants to use depending on your light and style requirements, and easy maintenance tips.

Rain gardens are becoming more and more popular as a way to help solve urban stormwater runoff. A rain garden is a shallow depression planted with the native plants and sedges that thrive in periodic wet conditions. It can be thought of as a miniature temporary wetland. Such gardens are filled with native plants that both slow the rush of runoff water and then hold the water briefly, allowing it to naturally infiltrate into the ground.

“One of the most common questions asked about rain gardens is if they breed mosquitoes,” says Janice Hand, who will be the presenter for the Wild Ones meeting. “The answer is ‘No’ since rain gardens are designed to hold water for only 24 to 48 hours, too short a time for mosquitoes to lay and hatch eggs.”

Hand is a University of Illinois Extension Master Gardener and Master Naturalist, and a long-time Wild Ones member.

The Lake-to-Prairie Wild Ones meeting is scheduled for August 7 at 7:15 p.m. at the Wauconda Area Library, 801 North Main Street in Wauconda.  

-Submitted by the Lake-to-Prairie Wild Ones Chapter