The Rain Garden

Thursday Today many of us went to work for Bayou Rebirth. We weeded, organized their tool shed, and prepared to create a rain garden. A rain garden is a rain water catchnment area which can be built in a back yard to prevent rain water from going into storm drains and becoming polluted when it hits the streets. The garden is actually a shallow hole in the ground filled with permeable soil such as crushed rock or sand and planted with attractive plants, usually native, such as iris and marsh grasses. Storm water flows into the garden and although it eventually sinks, is held there for a while, preventing erosion and pollution. If enough rain gardens could be built in New Orleans back yards, flooding could be vastly improved. It would also be a huge energy saving, as 40% of the energy used during a rain storm is for pumping the water out of the city!
It was hard, physical work, followed by cleaning up the huge brush pile left from pruning a large tree. We're tired tonight, but true to form, Barb and Marilyn have cooked a huge dinner and we are expecting Bev Jimenez and Joe and Gloria Robert, whose homes we worked on in other years. --Sheila



BTW, Barb