Jen McGuinness who blogs at Frau Zinnie wrote an excellent blog post about the rain garden presentation Dr. Mike Dietz of UConn Extension presented at the Master Gardener Symposium in March. In Jen’s words:

MANCHESTER, Conn. – With April showers imminent, you’ll soon be reminded of how much stormwater leaves your property. Water rushing through gutters and down driveways will find its way to the street’s sewer if you don’t have a way to trap it.

Instead of letting stormwater wash away, create a rain garden to keep it on site.

At the 2013 Connecticut Master Garden Association’s Symposium, Michael Dietz, Ph.D, NEMOprogram director and water resources educator, explained how a rain garden can be installed. The benefits can be clearly seen in densely populated (and paved) cities.

“Older cities have a runoff problem,” said Dietz. “The sewage and runoff from the house combine and overload the sewer treatment plants. If it’s overloaded, it goes into the rivers.”

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