Golden Opportunity
Kim Palmer - Star Tribune
A Minneapolis couple celebrate their 50th anniversary with a unique gift to the neighborhood - rain gardens for everyone on their block.
By KIM PALMER, Star Tribune Last update: August 26, 2009 - 7:47 AM
After 50 years of marriage and four grown kids, most couples are done with procreating. Not Bob and Debby Wolk. They recently gave birth to 11 baby rain gardens, one for every yard on their southwest Minneapolis block.
The Wolks hatched the plan earlier this year. Their 50th anniversary was a few months away, and they were trying to come up with a fun way to celebrate it. They wanted a party, but nothing formal. They also wanted something interactive, so that their friends from different circles could mingle. And, given the faltering economy, they wanted to do something that was socially useful as well as festive.
They looked for group volunteer opportunities on a website (www.handsontwincities.org), but most were on Saturdays, which would keep some of the Wolks' synagogue friends from taking part. "So we had to find our own Sunday thing," Debby said.
The Wolks are both big on gardening (she's a master gardener; he's on the board of Metro Blooms, a nonprofit that promotes urban gardening), so Bob asked a Metro Blooms colleague if she had any ideas. "She suggested doing a rain garden in a public space," he said. But which one, the couple pondered? And who would maintain it?
Then Debby had a brainstorm: "Why not give a rain garden to all our neighbors?"
The Wolks had already installed a rain garden on their own property several years earlier. They figured the more rain gardens in their neighborhood, the less runoff into nearby Minnehaha Creek, and the less algae and pollution in the city's chain of lakes.
"This is a special block," Debby said. While most homes in the surrounding neighborhood are two-stories, built in the 1920s and '30s, with small garages in the back, the Wolks' block was developed much later. "It was the swamp basin to the creek. This lot [the Wolks'] finally got dredged and drained in the late '40s," she said. By then, the housing norm was ramblers with lots of roof, garages in front and big concrete driveways sloping to the street, a recipe for runoff.
Intriguing invitation
In late March, the Wolks invited everyone on their block to a mysterious gathering at their home. "Bob's invitation was intriguing; it just said we'd like to talk to you about something," Debby recalled.
"And we'll have wine," Bob added.
Everyone came. "Then I stood up and said, 'We would like to give you a gift in honor of our 50th anniversary -- a rain garden.' There was this gasp. I said, 'You don't have to answer right away.'"
Most of the neighbors accepted enthusiastically that same night. But there were a few holdouts.
Luke Johnson, who lives at the opposite end of the block, was one. "I had some initial reservations," he said. "I'm not here a lot in the summer. I go up north. My concern was maintenance. I'm just not a gardener. It's not an interest of mine. And I was concerned about water usage."
But within two weeks, Johnson capitulated. "I know the Wolks a little bit, and they're really wonderful people," he said. "If they want to do that, I want to participate."
With all the neighbors now on board, the Wolks, working with Metro Blooms, hired a landscape architect to draw up three rain-garden templates and a list of native plants. Craig Stark, owner of Ecoscapes Sustainable Landscaping, met with individual homeowners to tweak the plans according to their site and their plant preferences.
Some, like Vicki Silberman, who lives across the street from the Wolks, gave Stark a lot of input. "When he asked, 'How big?' I said, 'Big.' I figured with our big yard it would look more balanced," she said. And she replaced one plant that she didn't like with another that she did.
Johnson, on the other hand, "didn't pay much attention to the templates. I went with what they suggested," he said. Even now, he doesn't know what plants he's growing. "What's in there, I couldn't tell you." Still, he's doing his best to keep them watered, he said.
In late May, Stark brought a backhoe and prepared the sites. The City of Minneapolis Parks Department delivered loads of wood chips for mulch. And finally, on May 31, about 150 of the Wolks' friends, relatives and neighbors gathered for a garden installation/block party. Each guest was assigned a garden to work on, with a master gardener as team leader. There was an art table for the kids, an ice-cream truck and a bluegrass band. And once the planting was done, guests danced in the street, which had been blocked off for the occasion. "We had a ball," Debby said.
"It was really fun," Silberman agreed. "And it was neat to be part of the whole thing, to feel like you're part of the solution."
Now, a little more than two months later, most of the gardens are thriving, although one appeared to be struggling. "It has very poor soil," Bob said. "Debby and I are going to dig it up and put in more topsoil. I want it to be right."
But mostly the Wolks are delighted with their new offspring -- and the people tending them.
"I'm so proud of my neighbors," Bob said. "A lot of them are not gardeners, but they're taking such good care of the gardens, watering and weeding. It's really great."
Kim Palmer • 612-673-4784
YOU CAN DO IT, TOO For primer on how to start a rain garden and a guide to some of the best rain garden plants, go to www.startribune.com/homegarden.
RAIN GARDEN DO'S AND DONT'S A rain garden isn't complicated or labor-intensive. It's simply a concave garden designed to collect rainwater runoff. Most rain gardens have plenty of native plants with deep roots, which can capture and filter runoff and reduce the amount of pollutants that enter storm sewers and, eventually, lakes and streams.
CHOOSING YOUR SITE DO choose a location with a natural low spot, preferably near where rainwater is most likely to run off (from your roof, downspouts, driveway or patio). But DON'T locate a rain garden within 10 feet of your house or you'll risk water in your basement. A well-placed rain garden "is a great solution for people with drainage problems in their yard," said Craig Stark, owner of Ecoscapes Sustainable Landscaping in Eagan. "Try to get the water away from the house -- it [the water] is not a waste product; it's a resource."
PREPARING YOUR SOIL Whether you're excavating yourself or hiring a contractor, DO make sure that your soil is well-tilled before you plant. If heavy machinery, such as a grader, is used, DON'T just scrape off the top layer of soil and compact the soil beneath it. A rain garden should be permeable, so it absorbs rainwater into the ground, rather than holding it in a basin. "People think a rain garden is supposed to be wet all the time, like a pond, but it isn't," Stark said. "It's meant to infiltrate." And DO add some organic material to the soil when planting, Debby Wolk said. "It can't hurt."
CHOOSING THE PLANTS DO choose hearty native plants, such as liatris, butterfly weed, bee balm and black-eyed Susan. The deep root structures of native plants help break up the soil and funnel rainwater through it. Native plants also attract wildlife, such as butterflies, birds and bees, to your garden. But DON'T be afraid to mix in a few other plants that you like. Debby Wolk recommends that at least 60 to 70 percent of your rain garden include native plants.
LEARNING MORE DO seek out rain-garden information resources, such as www.metroblooms.org or www.bluethumb.org. And DON'T overlook financial resources that can help defray upfront costs. Depending on where you live, you may be able to apply for grant money or a storm-sewer reduction on your water bill.
MANAGING YOUR EXPECTATIONS DO start small, Bob Wolk advised, especially if you're a novice gardener. You're less likely to feel overwhelmed if you take on only what you can handle. And DON'T get discouraged if your garden doesn't look great right away. "Be patient," he said. "The first year, a rain garden looks skimpy." By the second year, the native plants in your rain garden should be full and thriving.
KIM PALMER
Posted: August 26, 2009