What happens when 14 billion gallons of stormwater per year meet a hundred-year old system of pipes that is merged with the sewage system and is over 1600 miles long? As you can probably imagine, the result is really not pretty. But your Ecosystem Garden can help alleviate this problem, and we’ll get to that [...]
A Resource Guide to Conservation Gardening, Part 2: Water Conservation
This is Part 2 in a series of resources in Conservation Gardening. See Part 1: Sustainability. Managing rainwater where it falls keeps it out of the stormwater system and prevents flooding and soil erosion. The following references will provide you with many ideas for managing rainwater in your garden. Rain Gardens: Managing Water Sustainably in [...]
Conservation Gardening in Practice: Installing a Green Roof
Benefits of green roofs Green roofs, also called ecoroofs, vegetated roofs, and living roofs, offer a more sustainable alternative than traditional roofs because they provide several important environmental and economic benefits: They last up to twice as long as traditional roofs They slow the progression of rain into the stormwater system They mitigate urban heat [...]
Conservation Gardening: How to install a Rain Garden
What is a Rain Garden? The concept of rain gardens was developed in the late 1980s in Prince Georges County, MD and termed “bioretention”. The idea was to use planted areas as a sponge to soak up polluted stormwater and filter out impurities before allowing the water to slowly be absorbed into groundwater aquifers. Stormwater [...]
Managing Rainwater in the Conservation Garden
As the recent flooding in Missouri has so tragically shown, storm water management is an issue that must receive serious attention. As rampant development continues in this country, the earth is being smothered under the impervious surfaces of our buildings, roofs, driveways, streets, parking lots, and shopping centers. Our current method of dealing with the [...]
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