Reclaim Your Rain: Rain Garden Workshop in Gwinnett

LAWRENCEVILLE (Dec. 14) - Even though spring is still months away, it is not too early to think about how your garden can be the envy of your neighbors.

   What if you can have a beautiful garden and, at the same time, conserve water, reduce your water bill and help protect our waterways?

   Sound difficult? Having a well-watered flower garden does not have to be expensive. Nor do you have to ignore local or state restrictions on outdoor watering. All you need is a little bit of imagination and a rain garden.
The Clean Water Campaign has partnered with local governments and the University of Georgia Cooperative Extension Service to present a workshop on constructing a rain garden. This free "how to" workshop will take place on January 11 at 7 PM in the Gwinnett Justice and Administration Center located at 75 Langley Drive in Lawrenceville.

   Registration is required. Call 404-463-3259 or visit online at www.cleanwatercampaign.com. 

   An estimated 20 percent of water consumed by the average household is used outdoors. Rain gardens allow you to reduce your outdoor water use, keep a nice garden and save the money you would have spent on water to keep your landscape green. Rain gardens work by capturing run-off from your roof or drive way and diverting it to gardens and low-lying areas to slowly soak into the soil. After all, it's your rainwater, why not use it? An added benefit is that rain gardens reduce the amount of storm water runoff and pollutants in the runoff that enter local streams.

   Rain gardens also reduce peak storm flows, helping to prevent stream bank erosion and lowering the risk for local flooding. Rain gardens are beautiful natural landscape features that require less maintenance and fewer chemicals than lawns. A rain garden receives runoff water from roofs or other hard (impervious) surfaces such as driveways. The rain garden holds the water on the landscape so that it can be taken in by plants and soak into the ground instead of flowing into a street and down a storm drain or drainage ditch. The plants, mulch and soil in a rain garden combine natural physical, biological and chemical process to remove pollutants from runoff. Many pollutants will be filtered out and break down in the soil over time.

   Dr. Rose Mary Seymour of the University of Georgia Cooperative Extension Service Office in Griffin will be presenting the workshop.

   She will present the benefits of planting rain gardens, how to construct them and identify what plants to select.

   The Gwinnett County Extension Service office has DVDs and VHS tapes available for your homeowners association, civic group or other organizations to borrow. If you are interested, please contact the service at 678-377-4010. The program will also be airing on Gwinnett County's Government Access Channel TV-23.

   The Clean Water Campaign is a cooperative, multi-agency public education initiative spearheaded by local governments in metro Atlanta, supported by the Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District and managed by the Atlanta Regional Commission. Its mission is to build awareness of water quality problems and solutions in the Atlanta region. For more information about the Clean Water Campaign, contact Kelley O'Brien at 404-463-3259.