Rain Gardens to the Rescue

Restoration and Rain Gardens 2026 Program Update

Thanks to generous supporters like you, Friends of the Rouge continues to expand the reach and impact of restoring the Rouge River watershed with Rain Gardens. As we shared in last year’s report, your support in 2025 helped power 12 new rain gardens, 4 native plant gardens, and more than 10,000 native plants across the watershed. Every one of these installations representing a home protected, a street beautified, and a community strengthened.

Our team has been busy this spring and summer planting and educating the community.

Spring & Summer 2026: Implementation and Education

Garden Maintenance & Stewardship

Caring for past installations is a continued commitment to our mission. This summer, we scheduled multiple maintenance days to tend to rain gardens planted throughout the watershed in previous years. These stewardship days help ensure long-term performance, beauty, and community pride.

 Expanding Community Education

Education remains at the heart of Rain Gardens to the Rescue. This spring and summer, we reached hundreds of residents across the Rouge River watershed through:

- 2 Rain Garden 101 workshops 

- 2 Master Rain Gardener 5-part Training courses

- 1 Rain Gardens to The Rescue 5-part course

- 1 Detroit Stormwater Specialist Training 5-part course (focused on Dearborn)

These sessions introduced new audiences to the purpose, function, and design of rain gardens, which echoes last year’s hands-on learning approach where participants learned how rain gardens work, how to design their own, and how to care for them long-term.

 2026 Installations: New Rain Gardens

We are excited to share that 15 new rain gardens are currently in development for 2026. These are taking place in community spaces, residential spaces, and at houses of worship.

Each site was selected in partnership with residents and community organizations, prioritizing areas with chronic flooding, limited green space, or high stormwater runoff. As with previous years, these gardens will be installed with volunteer support and planted with native species that provide habitat, beauty, and stormwater benefits.

Looking Ahead

As heavy rainstorms become more frequent, the need for green infrastructure continues to grow. Your support ensures that more families can protect their homes, more pollinators can find habitat, and more neighborhoods can flourish with native plants and cleaner water

With your continued partnership, Rain Gardens to the Rescue will keep expanding its reach, deepening community engagement, and transforming the Rouge River watershed one garden at a time.