Tip 2: Keep the First Inch of Rain
Rain gardens offer a natural solution to pollution.
Rain from all the rooftops, lawns and streets - called runoff - adds up to a lot of water that moves really fast. Runoff carries soil, lawn chemicals and other pollutants into our lakes and wetlands through ditches, pipes and streams.
How much runoff leaves your property?
One inch of rainfall equals .62 gallons of runoff for every square foot of impervious surface. Here is a worksheet to compute how much runoff leaves your property [PDF].
Here’s an example of calculating runoff from a typical suburban property.
Protect our lakes - keep the first inch of rain right where it falls. Here's how:
- Move downspouts from hard surfaces like driveways to gardens or lawn.
- Change some of the lawn to native plant flower gardens that soak up and clean rain water. Learn more about converting your lawn [PDF].
Use rain barrels to capture rain to use later to water plants. Learn how to build a rain barrel.- Find room in your yard for a rain garden. Rain gardens are a natural solution to pollution. Rain garden plants help water soak into the ground and filter harmful pollutants. Read more about the benefits of rain gardens [PDF].
Learn more about rain gardens at these websites:
- Blue Thumb – Planting for clean water
- "Rain Gardens: A how-to manual for homeowners" [PDF 3.1MB] by Roger Bannerman, Wisconsin DNR