Monroe County, Indiana

What is a Rain Garden?

Rain gardens are a widely adopted stormwater best management practice (BMP) that can be installed on residential and commercial properties. These depressional, landscaped areas can be planted in a variety of soils from sand to clay and planted with wildflowers and other native plants that can tolerate both waterlogged and drought conditions. Rain gardens soak up rain water while their plants filter pollutants from runoff from the garden’s catchment area such as a parking lot or roof. The water is slowly filtered through the landscaped area where chemical, biological, and physical properties of the soils, plants, and microbes work together to provide watershed benefits including:

• Decreased stormwater runoff
• Slower runoff flow
• Less polluted runoff
• More water to replenish groundwater supplies
• Improved landscape

When you install a rain garden at your home you…

1.  Increase the amount of water that filters into the ground, which recharges local and regional aquifers.
2.  Help protect communities from flooding and drainage problems.
3.  Help protect streams and lakes from pollutants carried in urban stormwater including: lawn fertilizers and pesticides, oils and other fluids that leak from cars, and numerous harmful substances that wash off roofs and paved areas.
4. Enhance the beauty of your yard.
5. Provide valuable bird, pollinator, insect, and riparian habitat.

Interested but don't know where to start? Check out our Homeowner's Rain Garden Manual for guidance and ideas.

Other useful rain garden links:

• Indiana Native Plant Society's Native Plant Nursery Directory
• Indiana Department of Natural Resources' Rain Garden Manual
• Indiana Clear Choices Clean Water

Slide Show

• Rain Gardens Slide Show

• Useful
  Links