Rossville Rain Garden

A Service Project of Rossville PRIDE

The Rossville PRIDE organization, in association with Healthy Ecosystems-Healthy Communities, was awarded a grant to improve water management practices. This grant has allowed PRIDE to establish a rain garden in Rossville for all to enjoy and at the same time conserve rain water.

Rain Garden Resources

Rain Garden Photo Slideshow

Rossville PRIDE Committee

Rain Gardens are landscaped areas strategically located to intercept storm water runoff. They are slight depressions in the landscape, either natural or excavated, that can be planted to wild flowers and other native vegetation.

Rain gardens collect runoff from rooftops, driveways, lawns and parking lots and allow it to soak into the ground. Pollutants such as sediment, fertilizers, pesticides and even oil, grease and heavy metals from roads are trapped by the soil and root systems, allowing clean water to infiltrate the subsoil and recharge the groundwater.

The Healthy Ecosystems/Healthy Communities (HEHC) Project is a Kansas PRIDE initiative that strives for citizen-led planning and actions to sustain environmental quality and community health.

Rossville was selected as one of two pilot communities in 2006 and recently was recognized by HEHC for the rain garden.

In 2008, Rossville's Healthy Ecosystems-Healthy Communities (HEHC) project team and community volunteers, decided to build a rain garden to treat the runoff from a new parking lot in their city park.

In March and April of 2008, Rossville's HEHC team partnered with K-State's Landscape Architecture Regional and Community Planning department on a WaterLINK grant to have two graduate students assist them with the engineering and design plans for their rain garden.

In May and early June, despite numerous early summer rains, community members met for several construction and planting day events. They hauled tons of large stones and local contractors participating in the project, volunteered their labor and equipment services to prepare the ground for more than 1500 plants that would go into the rain garden.

More than 30 people showed up for "planting day" including representatives from wester Energy's Green Team. Talk about community team work?even local high school students, working with Sheila Marney, the Science teacher at Rossville Jr. /Sr. High School, participated in the project.

Rossville volunteers worked more than 300 hours on the rain garden through the summer and their work was rewarded with a garden that was awash with many beautiful blooms of native plants in late summer and early fall. And each spring, the perennials give an even bigger show!

See more photos from the Rossville Rain Garden

Rossville PRIDE volunteers are encouraging area homeowners and communities to adopt a water quality project, like a rain garden. There are many steps required to complete a project of this magnitude. Individuals will want to consider site selection and layout, constructions, planting, design, and maintenance efforts.

Rossville has compiled information from our experience in building a rain garden for all to use.