Help your local watershedBy creating a rain garden

Presented by OOB/Saco Alternative Education

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What is a rain garden?

A rain garden is a natural way to help protect our water resources.

A rain garden works by collecting run-off water from roofs and parking lots into a dug out depression.

As the run-off water soaks into the rain garden it is filtered by native plants and absorbed back into the ground.

This helps to protect our Saco watershed!

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What we did: 1st step: calculated a

garden space that would catch 30% of the run-off from the learning center roof

2nd step: designed our 300 square ft. garden space to be kidney-shaped. You can chose any shape you like.

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Choose Native Plants for your garden

Why it is important to use Native plants?

they filter the pollution better

adapted to native soil and climate

Plant suggestions

Choose a variety of perennial plant sizes for your rain garden

Choose native hardy varieties that can withstand both wet conditions and dry

Order enough plants to cover 1 every 2 ft (remember they will spread)

Order larger plants for the center and smaller/ground covers for the berm

We planted:

For the center: Dogwood, Fother Gila, & high bush blueberries

For the mid section: black-eyed susans, medium bush blueberries, mallows, hollyhocks, & daisies

For the berm: Bearberry and low lying juniper

Steps 3 & 4:

3: Dig a depression at least 1 ft. below the sod from edge to edge to catch the rain water run-off. Remove sod and dirt to the outer edges facing away from the roof (or parking area) to create the ‘berm’ (the farther edge built up to create a bowl).

4: Make sure that you dig your garden’s lowest point in the middle

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Steps 5 & 6

5: Cover your depression with 3 to 4 inches of top soil mixed with compost

6: Overlap layers of landscape fabric parallel to the roof over your entire garden area except for the berm

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Start Planting!!

7: Cut an X through the landscape fabric where you want to transplant your new plant

8: Dig a hole bigger than the root ball of your new plant, place it in the hole with the root ball 1/4 in. above the surface and cover with soil.

Last but not least, spread a thick layer of good quality mulch over the entire garden and then WATER!!

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A Complete Rain Garden!!!

Our Rain Garden was made possible by generous grants from the Dept. of Environmental Protection & KIDS Consortium

We encourage everyone to come and see our garden at 80 Common St. and to make a rain garden on your property, too!

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