Installing Rain Gardens At County Extension Offices

The University of Kentucky Environmental and Natural Resources Issues Task Force (ENRI) is partnering with local Kentucky County Extension Offices and regional 4-H Camps to install rain gardens.  In 2011, ENRI led workshops to install gardens in four counties across the state.  These rain gardens resulted from a day-long, hands-on workshop involving local county agents and master gardeners, and were meant as prototypes to develop educational materials and instill interest in local education opportunities regarding water quality.  The installation process involves one or more state specialists visiting the site for the potential rain garden, and working with the local organizer to roughly prepare the site on the day before the workshop.  Another specialist worked with the local organizer to select and purchase plants prior to the workshop.  The workshop consists of participants engaged in presentations about water quality and rain garden design followed by finishing construction of the rain garden initiated the previous day.  The rain gardens range in size from approximately 150 sq. ft. to over 400 sq. ft.   The most expensive aspect to construction has been plants and mulch and total on-sight costs have generally been less than $500. Additional workshops are planned in 2012 including four involving 4-H staff at each of the regional 4-H Camps in Kentucky.  This paper will describe the process of selecting and preparing the rain garden sites and provide a prototype for workshops to teach water quality topics and provide hands-on experience in designing and installing a rain garden.