By Charla Wurm-Adams
cwurm@wbcowqel.com
The Crawford Park District held a program Thursday with Mike Hall from the Crawford Soil and Water Conservation District. The program was designed to educate the public on rainwater collection systems and rain gardens.
It all starts with a barrel, a roof and some rain according to Hall.
“We went over some of the different ideas with the plants and the designs of them and things like that, you might encounter when you are trying to install a rain garden,” Hall said.
The smallest amount of rain can produce 60 gallons of free water to use for landscapes, plants or to water animals.
Hall noted that the sizing of the garden is very important to its success. He also identified some of the plants that tend to be invasive and take over. There was also discussion of how nutrients in the soil are held with different types of soil: for example, clay soil holds phosphorus which is a great nutrient for the soil to have.
The City of Bucyrus recently received a grant through the Lake Erie Commission to promote these systems. The money comes from the cost of the license plates. The cost share is 75 percent up to $500 payment to install a rain garden.
For more information go online to www.crawfordswcd.org or call (419)562-8280.