Rain Gardens

Locations

Dorset Farms; Mayfair Park; Airport Parkway; Queen City Park.

Problem

Runoff from single-family homes, driveways and lawns is a pollution source.

Description

Rain gardens were installed on sites in four South Burlington neighborhoods to demonstrate how this control method can supplement traditional structural treatment practices to reduce hydrologic impacts and sediment and nutrient wash-off from typical single-family home development in the Champlain Valley.

Detailed planting plan
Detailed planting plan
Rain garden conceptual schematic
Rain garden conceptual schematic

 

Benefit

By diverting roughly one-quarter of the stormwater runoff from the impervious surfaces on each of the demonstration sites through a rain garden, this project demonstrates how homeowners can use landscaping to reduce their homes’ impacts on Lake Champlain. A major goal of this project is to provide photo and monitoring documentation of the benefits associated with diverting even a portion of the stormwater runoff from single-family home sites, since on a watershed-wide basis, these have a tremendous, although un-concentrated, impact.

Best Management Practices

Vegetated Swales
Responsible lawn care
Responsible fertilizer use
Rain barrel
Rain garden

Timeline

Summer/Fall 2005

Total Project Value

$35,400

Funding Sources

Gardener’s Supply in-kind donation of plants; South Burlington Stormwater Utility project funds; EPA Clean Water Act Section 319 grant through the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation

Technical Advisors

Kathleen Ryan, ASLA, Landscape Architect; Karen Bates, Vermont DEC; Carrie Deegan, Winooski Natural Resource Conservation District

Partners

Vermont Clean and Clear Initiative
Vermont Youth Conservation Corps

 

Last Updated: 11/2009