The Rain Garden project at the Tappan Middle school was a 2023 Habitat Grant Awardee.
PRIMARY GOALS OF PROJECT:
Improve drainage and runoff from the paved parking lot areas, bring native and pollinator-friendly plants to the site for students to study, add beauty to a barren hillside of languishing grass
BRIEF PROJECT OVERVIEW/TIMELINE (include date of plant install):
- September-February - Months of meetings/ phone calls to align district requirements with our plan
- March-April 2024 - Digging --- mulch delivery --- sculpting and rock arranging
- June 2024 - Plant delivery and install
Tappan’s Rainoff Reducer Rain Gardens!
(Google Slides presentation with many photos!)
SUCCESSES AND CHALLENGES:
Success - So many volunteers from students and parents to community members who got involved and interested in the project; great variety of plants that seem to be doing well in the conditions at the site
Challenges - The design and plan for the site chosen was discussed a few times, including during 2 onsite meetings. However, when the day came to dig, at that point the team realized the number of rocks onsite. Thus, the size of the beds was halved from the original plan/intention, leading to an order for mulch that was twice as large as needed, and same for the plants. From my own personal experience with installing a rain garden on my home property, I know that digging into the soil in a few places to understand the type of soil and drainage is often standard, so it felt like an oversight that the installers didn’t know about the rocks ahead of time to have worked with me on a plan to resize the beds. In addition, one garden bed receives a lot more runoff than the others and needed 2 different follow-up visits to more appropriately resize/dig/shape it.
PLAN FOR FUTURE MAINTENANCE/USE:
Teachers, students, and families are working throughout the summer to water the gardens as needed between rains; in the fall, a more formal schedule will be determined for weeding and general maintenance. This will be handled among 3-4 different teachers and their classes, so if one teacher leaves the school for any reason, there are others to keep up the gardens. There is also a connection being fostered with the school garden coordinator who runs the flower/vegetable gardens onsite to share tools (gloves, wheelbarrows, shovels, watering cans, etc.).
