On Saturday, May 13th 2023, Daily Acts partnered with the Town of Windsor to host a hands-on rain garden workshop, educating residents on how to design and construct bioretention basins for their yards. The workshop was hosted at a Windsor resident’s front yard who had applied through an application process hosted by Daily Acts.
Prior to the project, three downspouts directed water away from the property toward the street. By redirecting water from the downspouts to a rain garden, water from the roof is captured in the yard and the rain water is used to not only create a healthy and beautiful yard, but would also aid in groundwater recharge.
The day of the installation began with a presentation from Connor DeVane about the purposes of rain gardens and design considerations. After a morning of learning, grounding, and stretching, volunteers got busy removing sod with pick axes and flat head shovels. Once the lawn was removed within the rain garden perimeter, volunteers dug within the rain garden to reach a uniform depth of 15 inches from the inflow. Using some of the removed soil, volunteers built up berms on the lower side of the garden to reach the same level as the inflow. This process of digging out the garden and building up a berm had the volunteers learn and practice technical skills that they would be able to apply for their own landscaping projects.
After successfully creating a level basin on a slope, volunteers and Daily Acts staff began to prepare the rain garden for planting. First, the rain garden was backfilled with 6 inches of bioretention soil mixture (1/3 compost, 2/3 native soil). On top of the soil mixture, 2-3 inches of mulch was spread to enhance the basin’s absorption capacity. The team then laid drip irrigation using techniques that help to achieve field saturation in dry months.
To finish the design, rocks were laid from the inlet to the outlet to create a creek running through the garden. While the creek does not play a role in infiltration, it aesthetically enhances the design by providing an ecological reference for an artificial wetland.
