Tuesday, September 13, 2005
Replacing Parts of Lawn With Gardens Can Help Preserve the Chesapeake Bay
Original link"Lawns are up to 90 percent impervious," Lathan said. "Most people don't realize that." Impervious spaces -- not just lawns, but buildings, driveways, parking lots, streets and highways -- fail to catch and hold rainwater. Instead, the water simply runs off, carrying with it any contaminants or pollutants (gasoline, fertilizer, pesticides) and filling storm sewers or swelling streams, which in turn pour potentially deadly water down through watersheds and into bodies of water such as the Chesapeake Bay.
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Creating a rain garden is one of things people can do to improve their immediate environment. Lathan is always surprised that people think it difficult. A rain garden is no more than a 3- to 6-inch, saucer-shaped depression planted with native grasses and flowering perennials. The depression and the plants collect rain and let it seep into the earth. The depression shouldn't be so deep that water pools -- it should be gone in 24 to 48 hours. ...
I didn't realize that lawns were mostly impervious, although I previously stated other problems with them before. I hadn't heard of a rain garden before, and they sound like they could be very attractive as well as functional.
Thanks to the Evangelical Ecologist for the tip.