Website helps you get a great yard with less mowing and watering
Jeff Olsen, KARE 11 News
Video at http://www.kare11.com/video/player.aspx?aid=77972
"We come out here and we feel like it's holding Minnesota in its arms. It's gathering in the good wet Minnesota and converting it to blooms and oxygen," homeowner Ted Kiesselbach said of his yard full of rain gardens.
The area is a kaleidoscope of lush green plants and colorful blooms. And when you get up close you find them alive with equally-colorful insects.
"There's a lot of vitality here," Kiesselbach said.
Brimming with vitality, these patches are rooted in practicality.
"We were getting lots of water in the basement," Kiesselbach continued.
So Ted and his family created a series of rain gardens with benefits that go beyond a drier basement.
"They're positioned in the landscape to intercept storm water runoff and all the pollutants that it carries," landscape restoration specialist Shawn Tracy said.
Tracy, a specialist with the Association of Metropolitan Soil and Water Conservation Districts, says runoff from the Kiesselbach's and parts of several surrounding properties is now scrubbed clean in rain gardens before water discharges to a nearby creek.
Besides being good for the environment, Tracy says the native plants used in rain gardens are good for your pocketbook too.
"You'll have reduced watering significantly. You won't have to fertilize or use herbicides," Tracy added.
"A common question might be what kind of plants do I put in there?" Rice Creek Watershed District Outreach and Education Coordinator Dawn Pape said.
An increasingly popular place to find that answer and others is at www.bluethumb.org. The Planting For Clean Water website is the centerpiece of a program started by Pape and the Rice Creek Watershed District.
"With A to Z information to help residents plan and plant native gardens, rain gardens and lake shore buffers using native plants to help keep water clean." Pape added.
www.bluethumb.org, now more than 50 partners strong, includes an easy-to-use plant selector tool, tips on garden placement and information about grants available for creating yards like the Kiesselbach's.
"How to information if you're a do-it-yourselfer. And if you're not a do-it-yourselfer you can find a list of landscapers who will do it for you," Pape continued.
A one-stop-shop of sorts-- for growing formal and more natural-looking gardens that are easy on the eyes and nearby waterways.
"If you like turning negatives into positives, a rain garden is a good way to go," Kiesselbach said.
Click here to learn more about Blue Thumb.org
Posted: July 28, 2008