Well a pandemic can throw a wrench into your environmental education plans! So we have revived our goal of learning together about Rain Gardens and how they can benefit our community — and how to build them — by taking the whole movement online. 

But wait! Why build rain gardens at all? 

A rain garden is designed and planted to collect and absorb stormwater runoff from a roof, driveway or other hard surfaces. By doing this, the garden can slow down water movement while filtering pollutants the rain gathers in its cycle, before the water can enter our rivers, lakes and groundwater. 

That’s pretty great, but they also reduce flooding, refresh the groundwater, and look nice too! 

Amazing fact: one inch of rain can capture and clean 600 gallons of water in a typical rain garden. They are so useful, cities and towns all over the world are encouraging rain gardening, especially in places where water resources are fragile. 

Our friends in Washtenaw County, where a wonderful and successful rain gardening movement has taken root (!), have made their amazing, self-paced, online Master Rain Gardener class free to anyone who registers before June 1, 2020. 

We are hoping to gather — working online, and of course in our gardens — a local group of folks interested in developing rain gardens at their homes and businesses. The idea is that we learn, do, and help each other with information, resources, advice, and encouragement. 

The online course includes five hour-long classes and time to do outdoor homework. It’s homework that involves planning a garden, so you know it’s not really homework at all, just fun for the inner gardener!

The online, free Washtenaw County class also has a wonderful Facebook group, where people from all over are sharing their homework, and where their Rain Gardener Masters and course alumni are present to help answer our questions. 

Here is the link to the online course, free as long as you register before June 1, 2020:
https://www.washtenaw.org/2456/Online-Certification

And here is a link to the Washtenaw County Facebook group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/MasterRainGardener/

And if you want to join the Saugatuck-Douglas local group of rain gardeners, learning and working together on the class and on homework, sign up here:
https://forms.gle/x4h5pmLfcWP4pQ219