Rain Gardens to the Rescue

Thanks to amazing donors like you, along with funding provided by GlobalGiving and The Fred A. and Barbara M. Erb Family Foundation, Friends of the Rouge was able to award nine (9) total rain gardens to participants in the Rain Gardens to the Rescue program in 2022. The rain gardens were installed in August and early September 2022 at the homes of Detroiters who completed a five-part training course, where they learned all about rain gardens, their installation and maintenance. 

Rain gardens installed last year were designed by participants during the training course with support from stormwater experts. The 2022 installations replaced a total of 1,787 square feet of lawn with beautiful gardens and native plantings. These rain gardens can now directly prevent 5,673 gallons of rainwater from flowing into the combined sewer system (that's about 150 bath tubs worth of water) every time it rains!  These gardens also help Friends of the Rouge (FOTR) move toward a goal of 5,000 rain gardens by 2035. Plus, these rain gardens benefit the community by providing community gathering spaces and green spaces to connect with nature.

Funds received through GlobalGiving allowed Friends of the Rouge to support an additional two (2) rain gardens in Detroit and Highland Park. These gardens wouldn't have been possible without your support through GlobalGiving! The Virginia Park garden serves as a demonstration of a rain garden, featuring beautiful native flowers. Graduate Venita, along with The Virginia Park Community group, plan to install additional gardens, transforming the lot into a neighborhood park, beautifying and adding green space for the community, while managing stormwater runoff and providing pollinator habitat.

In 2022, Betsy applied for a rain garden in her yard after large 2021 rain events caused water damage in her basement. Since homes are very close together in this community, the stormwater affecting Betsy’s home was actually coming from her neighbor’s downspout. While out at Betsy’s site visit, we met her neighbor Gloria, and talked with her about rain gardens and the program. Betsy talked with Gloria about putting in a garden herself to help manage the water between their homes. Betsy and Gloria were both able to get rain gardens, and haven’t experienced the seepage as before. Betsy’s garden is 216 square feet, plus she converted her full 600 square-foot front yard into native plants to support more wildlife. Gloria built a smaller, uniform 45 square-foot garden along her fence with a variety of purple flowers. The different-sized gardens are a great visual, showing passersby that a garden of any size can look beautiful and make a big difference!

This coming year, Friends of the Rouge will continue to focus on underrepresented communities of color and low-income households in Metro Detroit that are disproportionately harmed by increased flooding events and environmental pollution. FOTR and partners work to expand our audience by providing educational materials in Spanish and Arabic, in addition to English. The garden application will be available by mid-March. The free educational training course, held weekly in June, will be advertised to the public. New installations will include smaller-scale residential gardens, in addition to several large-scale gardens at local houses of worship. This effort aims to educate and engage the community with rain garden design and installations. Additionally, members of the congregations will be inspired to install rain gardens of their own. Thank you for your continued support of Rain Gardens to the Rescue!

Links:

• Rain Gardens to the Rescue homepage
• 2022 GSI Virtual Tour

We thank you for another great year of rain gardens! Generous support received through GlobalGiving and with funding from the Erb Family Foundation, Friends of the Rouge awarded nine (9) rain gardens to Detroit area residents participating in the Rain Gardens to the Rescue program in 2022. Installation of these rain gardens took place in August and September at the homes of residents who had completed the five-part training course throughout June where they learned about rain gardens and how to install and maintain the garden. Rain gardens are a low cost solution to urban stormwater pollution. Overflows of the combined sewer system in the region are a major source of water pollution in the Rouge and Detroit Rivers and the Great Lakes. 

Rain gardens, designed by participants and with support from stormwater experts, have replaced 1,787 square feet of lawn grass and capture rainwater runoff from 3,249 square feet of impervious roofs. These gardens store 5,673 gallonsof water every time it rains, reducing localized flooding and preventing excess sewage overflows into our local waterways! The average garden size was 130 square feet, showing how mighty an impact even a small rain garden can have. In total, these gardens have the potential of managing over 60,000 gallons of stormwater ever year. Since 2011, we have installed over 100 rain gardens across the City of Detroit that are helping towards Friends of the Rouge’s goal of 5,000 rain gardens across Southeast Michigan by 2035!

With generous donations through the GlobalGiving campaign, Friends of the Rouge was able to support two (2) residential rain gardens in Highland Park, a community surrounded by Detroit city boundaries and share the combined sewer and stormwater system. Although Highland Park is similarly impacted by stormwater as Detroit, the program’s main funding excluded these neighborhoods. Because of your support, we were able to bring rain gardens to more communities, engage and educate more residents, and increase the green space connectivity across the region with these additional gardens in Highland Park.

Angela, who is a Highland Park resident, is very passionate about protecting people and the environment. She had wanted a rain garden for 10 years and was very excited to install one of her own through this program. “Each class session helped me to learn why rain gardens are an important addition to any landscape, how they support pollinators and birds, and how rain gardens can help mitigate stormwater runoff. I also learned how to calculate a rain garden area, the best rain garden plants native to Michigan, and different ways to design my rain garden. I am excited to see my rain garden blooming for years to come.” Angela is very active in her neighborhood and the Spanish-speaking community in Highland Park and Detroit. Friends of the Rouge is working with her to coordinate an introductory workshop about Rain Gardens in Spanish for the community in early 2023!

In 2023 and 2024, Friends of the Rouge, with funding from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, will focus on underrepresented neighborhoods in Metro Detroit that receive disproportionately greater flooding events and other environmental pollution from nearby industry and whose residents are majority persons of color and low income households in Southwest Detroit, River Rouge and Southend Dearborn communities. The program will expand its audience by providing materials in Spanish and Arabic in addition to English.

These gardens will include smaller scale residential gardens in addition to several large-scale gardens at local houses of worship and nonprofits. The larger gardens will aid in educating the community on green infrastructure, involve neighbors in the design and installation of the gardens, inspire them to install their own gardens, and have a community green space to connect with nature. Thank you for your ongoing support of Rain Gardens to the Rescue!

Links:

• Rain Gardens to the Rescue Homepage