Rain Gar­dens, also known as bio-retention sys­tems, mimic nat­ural water reten­tion and serve as a stormwa­ter man­age­ment fea­ture, as well as a beau­ti­ful gar­den. They are low lying areas cre­ated to absorb, and fil­ter runoff from roofs, dri­ve­ways and park­ing lots. Rain gar­dens are planted with native plants adapted for high lev­els of water, which help to hold the runoff and fil­ter pol­lu­tants while the runoff water slowly soaks into the ground.  Here is a sug­gested list of plants that work well in rain gar­dens.

Free rain gar­den work­shops are avail­able to res­i­dents.  Sign up HERE to join the next workshop.

Rain Bar­rels col­lect and store water runoff from roof down­spouts to be reused as needed for land­scape water­ing, car wash­ing, or other out­door uses where non-potable water is accept­able. Because they allow water reuse, rain bar­rels are a prac­ti­cal water con­ser­va­tion tool and reduce our demand on treated tap water. Trust us, your grass and flow­ers won’t notice the dif­fer­ence! (See “Drink­ing Water” to learn where your tap water comes from and how it is treated.)

Howard County is giv­ing away bar­rels for you to build your own rain bar­rel.  The bar­rel comes with pre-drilled holes, but addi­tional parts and assem­bly are required.  To col­lect your FREE BARREL visit the rain bar­rel and com­post bin work­shops at Alpha Ridge Land­fill with the Mas­ter Gar­den­ers on the first and third Sat­ur­day of the month, April through Octo­ber.  Click HERE for a detailed sched­ule.  Please see links below for How to Build a Rain Bar­rel and the Rain Bar­rel Pledge Form for Res­i­dents that are used in the workshop.

Other local rain bar­rel sources include:

Howard County Soil Con­ser­va­tion District

Arling­ton Echo