By Staff
August 28th, 2024
BURLINGTON, ON
The heavy rainfalls in mid July was intense; with nowhere for the water to go many people ended up with flooded basements.
Is it possible to create places for rain water to go. A landscaper in Toronto promotes the creation of a rain garden. See what you think.
A rain garden is a landscaped feature that replaces an area of your lawn in order to collect the stormwater (rain and melted snow) that runs off your grass, roof and driveway. This shallow depression has loose, deep soil that absorbs and naturally filters the runoff, preventing it from entering the storm drain system and, eventually, our waterways.
Rain gardens complement any style of landscape and can be adapted to personal preferences. They can be large or small and can take advantage of pockets of space in your yard.
Why build a rain garden?
Rain gardens are not only beautiful and creative, they are also functional. By planting a rain garden, you can help maintain the natural water cycle while protecting local rivers, lakes, fish and drinking water sources.
Rain gardens:
- Limit the amount of water that enters the local storm drain system
- Reduce the potential for flooding, drainage problems and stream bank erosion
- Reduce the quantity of pollutants that run from our yards and roads straight into our waterways
- Restore and recharge our groundwater system
- Are low maintenance. They are planted with beautiful, hardy plants that require little to no watering
- Attract birds, butterflies and beneficial insects, such as mosquito-consuming dragonflies
- Complement any style of landscape and enhance the beauty of the surrounding neighbourhood.
Compared to a patch of lawn, a rain garden allows about 30% more water to soak into the ground!
The website RAINscapeTO.ca expands on this idea
Let’s face it…the problem is too much asphalt and concrete covering too small an area. Get used to it. Maybe build a pilot rain garden instead of the City Square and see how that works.
Graham, the City offers trees to residents twice a year curtesy of the dollars received from the private tree by-law. Consider this a subsidy.
Smaller lots and greater lot coverage are making rain gardens, trees, or even lawn more difficult to find space for in our City. Any and all of these are an important flood mitigation measure. If we have space for trees, they also help mitigate heat.
You would have to have large $$ subsidies.