In addition to adding beauty to your yard, raingardens can also help recharge groundwater and reduce and filter stormwater runoff. Photo by Jane Conroe

After a hard rain, do you have a wet area in your yard that never completely dries out or takes forever to do so? Or a water issue around your house that you don’t know what to do with? If this sounds all too familiar, then a raingarden might just be the solution for you!

When it rains, all that water has to go somewhere. Our homes, patios, driveways, and other hard (impermeable) surfaces prevent rainwater from seeping into the soil. Instead, it usually runs off into storm drains and sewers – and often carries pollution with it which can contaminate water supplies! Within our communities and neighborhoods, rainwater flowing off these impermeable surfaces is directed by either a roof, gutter, or swale to flow away from your home or structure and remove it from your property.

In a natural area where there are no man-made materials, stormwater is captured by leaf litter, low-lying plants, and tree roots and is then slowly infiltrated into the soil. There, it is naturally filtered and cleansed of some pollutants. It is also used by plants and replenishes the water table. Nature knows best what to do with rainwater, and its easier than you think to create a version of this process in your yard!

Creating nature’s version of a rain garden in your yard is an easy and beautiful solution to deal with excess rain and stormwater runoff. This water-smart landscape feature is designed to catch and filter rain and water runoff with the help of native plants. Plus, your rain garden will recharge groundwater and provide a home to birds, butterflies, and wildlife.

Rain gardens can:

¯ Enhance the beauty of your home and landscaping

¯ Provide habitat for beneficial insects and birds

¯ Filter oil and grease from driveways and filter pesticides, fertilizers, and other pollutants from lawns before they reach groundwater or a storm drain and eventually streams, wetlands and lakes

¯ Reduce flooding on neighboring property, overflows in sewers, and erosion in streams by absorbing runoff from hard surfaces

¯ Increase the amount of water that soaks into the ground to recharge local groundwater

Let’s do our part in slowing down, spreading out, and soaking in stormwater runoff!

You can make an important community contribution by reducing the amount of stormwater and pollutants coming from your property and entering our region’s waterways by installing a raingarden in your yard.

For easy, step-by-step instructions for installing a raingarden, visit chautauqua.cce.cornell.edu/gardening/rain-gardens or call CWC’s Conservationist Carol Markham at 716-664-2166 for guidance and a free yard consultation today.

The Chautauqua Watershed Conservancy is a not-for-profit organization with the mission to preserve and enhance the water quality, scenic beauty and ecological health of the lakes, streams, wetlands and watersheds of the Chautauqua region. For more information, call 716-664-2166, visit chautauquawatershed.org and follow CWC on Facebook and Instagram.