Rain Garden Workshop Planned for Sept. 3 at Honey Haven Farm

Rain—you can’t live with it and you can’t live without it. It seems there’s no happy medium. We have too much and struggle with drainage issues, or there’s not enough and everything wilts.

Wither higher frequency, higher intensity rain events becoming the norm for our area instead of the exception, one secret to good water and draining management is keeping the water that falls onto your property on your property so that water can be used when you need it. Rain barrels are one such tool, and so are rain gardens.

Rain gardens are recessed, “sunken” garden areas filled with rugged, often native, water resistant plants. They are fed by natural rain-flow drainage or from gutter downspouts. The concept is that the water is captured, stored, and slowly dissipated over time following a rain event, allowing the rain garden to hold soil moisture, filter potential pollutants, and reduce overflow during heavy rain events.

To help Ashland County residents learn more about how they can utilize and implement rain gardens for water management at their own homes, Ashland Soil and Water Conservation District is partnering with Honey Haven Farms to host a Rain Garden Workshop on September 3 at 6:30.

The Nature Conservancy graphic above does a great job illustrating how rain gardens work.

“Rain gardens can be a fun, useful, and beautiful addition to your landscape,” said Becca Vales, urban and education specialist at Ashland SWCD. “Valerie Smith will be conducting the workshop, and she has an amazing wealth of knowledge to share, from what the process of installing a rain garden involved to what plants are the best choices for a rain garden.”

Registration will be $10 and includes light refreshments for the evening; space is limited to 30 participants. Tickets can be purchased through the SWCD’s Facebook page at www.facebook.cpm/AshlandSWCD, in person at the Ashland SWCD office, or by mailing registration to Becca Vales, Ashland SWCD, 1763 SR 60, Ashland OH 44805. In June, Ashland SWCD and Honey Haven Farm partnered to host two rain barrel workshops, and spots sold out very quickly for those programs.

Ashland SWCD was selected by the National Association fo Conservation Districts to receive an urban agriculture initiative grant for the 2020 year; the grant focused on providing educational opportunities to local Head Start students as well as stormwater management education events such as rain barrel and rain garden workshops as well as the Rain Beat on Main Street event that will be taking place July 30 through August 25 in Loudonville and Ashland.

For more information on stormwater management or any of these programs, contact Vales at 419-281-7645 or by e-mail at bvales@ashlandcounty.org.