CHATHAM BOROUGH, NJ - GreenPath Landcare and Chatham Borough volunteers have planted a variety of native plants in a beautiful kidney-shaped demonstration rain garden next to the Memorial Park pool.
The rain garden, which will have an educational sign describing rain gardens and acknowledging donors, will open to the public with the grand reopening of Memorial Park and Pool, to be held on May 19.
“The rain garden is a beautiful addition to Memorial Park,” said Mary Keselica, President of the Town and Country Garden Club.
The rain garden was made possible by a $5,000 donation from Sprout House Nursery School. Z-Tech Construction, Scandic Builders and Green Path LandCare have also donated labor and materials to the project.
“We are grateful to Sprout House, Scandic, Z-Tech, and GreenPath for their donations,” said Chatham Borough Councilman Len Resto. “A previous rain garden grant application was turned down, but, this being Chatham, private donors came through to make the rain garden possible.”
A rain garden is a shallow depression landscaped with native plants. When it rains, stormwater slowly soaks into into the rain garden, instead of running off into storm sewers.
The Memorial Park demonstration rain garden will manage an estimated 25,000 gallons of rainwater per year from the roof, pool deck and sump pump of Memorial Pool.
Without the rain garden, that stormwater runoff, possibly including pollutants such as oil, grease, chemicals and bacteria, would eventually run off into the Passaic River, which, after being treated, is the source of drinking water for many communities, including Chatham Township.
Instead, the rain garden will recharge the stormwater runoff into the acquifer. Chatham Borough gets its drinking water from the Buried Valley Acquifer.
“Homeowners and businesses can also install rain gardens on their properties,” said Cindy Steffens, Chair of the Chatham Borough Green Initiatives Committee. “Rain gardens are usually inexpensive to install and easy to maintain.”
The recent annual native plant sale at Sprout House included the plants used in the Chatham Borough rain garden.
A rain garden manual, describing in detail how to select a site and install a rain garden, is available online, at the New Jersey Native Plant Society website: www.
npsnj.org.
It has been estimated that, if 40 people install rain gardens, 1,000,000 gallons of rainwater may be filtered and recharged every year.
