BATAVIA, Ohio (WXIX) – Rain garden classes are coming to Clermont County.
They look like beautiful flower beds, but they also have the secondary purpose of helping to keep our water clean.
Rain gardens are gardens of native plants that help protect our water quality.
Elea Cooper with Clermont County Soil and Water says there’s a science behind it all.
“The water enters through the inlet, and then the native plants in the garden help to act as a filter to remove any sediment in the water, any nutrients, any pollutants,” Cooper explains. “And then there is also an outlet just in case there is too much water.”
Rain gardens like the one at the Clermont County Fairgrounds are strategically placed in low-lying areas.
So, for example, water will come rushing down the road. It will go right into the rain garden, where it has been filtered naturally.
Stormwater is filtered by the plants’ roots before heading into the storm drain.
The plants are sturdy and can withstand pollution and flooding.
This makes them a perfect natural filter.
“It could be oil from your car, it could be all sorts of unsavory things that we don’t want to enter the waterway,” says Cooper. “And so, where the rain garden helps because by stopping that water, it lets all those pollutants filter out before the water is going into our larger waterways.
Clermont County Soil and Water is teaming up with the Clermont County Park District to host rain garden classes.
The classes are every Thursday for six weeks starting Oct. 2.
They run from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. at Pattison Park Lodge in Batavia.
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