Rain Garden Workshop Follow Up- Resources

Whether you were able to attend the Rain Garden Planning Workshop this past Tuesday evening or not, we think you'll find the resources we discussed very useful if you do decide to plan and build a rain garden in 2014.

Call Before You Dig
We talked about the importance of locating buried infrastructure such as gas and water lines. This is often called "Call Before You Dig." Here in Halifax, you'll need the following information:

Heritage Gas: 1-866-313-3030

Halifax Water: http://www.halifax.ca/hrwc/CallBeforeYouDig.html Go here to download, fill out and submit the Locates Request Form. Only call to follow up once the form has been submitted.

Bell Aliant: 1-800-332-3333

Rain Garden Guides

Once you're sure you are not going to hit anything important while digging, you can get on to siting and planning your garden. We talked about siting considerations, determining the rain catchment area, soil type, slope and sizing of rain gardens. There are many great rain garden handbooks and manuals freely available online. A good one should discuss all of these factors in detail. The ones below are thorough and clear with great diagrams. 

The Vermont Rain Garden Manual “Gardening to Absorb the Storm” http://www.uvm.edu/seagrant/sites/uvm.edu.seagrant/files/vtraingardenmanual.pdf

Rain Garden Layouts from Maine http://www.maine.gov/dep/land/stormwater/stormwaterbmps/vol1/appendixa.pdf from Maine Stormwater Best Management Practices Manual found here http://www.maine.gov/dep/land/stormwater/stormwaterbmps/

The New Jersey Rain Garden Manual

http://www.npsnj.org/pages/nativeplants_Rain_Gardens.html

Evergreen Native Plant Database

Many of the plants listed in them will be relevant, but we recommend using the Evergreen Native Plant Database Advanced Search function to determine whether a plant is native to Nova Scotia. You can also use it to sort other plant characteristics like colour, sun and soil preferences, and uses such as wildlife habitat creation or property shading. 

http://nativeplants.evergreen.ca/search/advanced.php

Useful Books Available at the Halifax Public Libraries

Plants for Atlantic Gardens by Jodi Delong http://discover.halifaxpubliclibraries.ca/?itemid=|library/m/halifax-horizon|1718843

Best Garden Plants for Atlantic Canada by Duncan Kelbough and Alison Beck http://discover.halifaxpubliclibraries.ca/?itemid=|library/m/halifax-horizon|1558998

Creating Rain Gardens by Cleo Woelfle-Erskine and Apryl Uncapher http://discover.halifaxpubliclibraries.ca/?itemid=|library/m/halifax-horizon|1766234

Plan Your Home Rain Garden Workshop

Got the Mid-Winter Blues? Start your spring rain garden planning with us on Tuesday February 18th, 2014 in the Ecology Action Centre kitchen from 7:00 - 8:30 pm. 

We’ll get you started with design tips and criteria, and have resource books and videos on hand to get you on your way to implementing your own beautiful rain garden.  Rain gardens are designed to receive stormwater from your property before it reaches the road.  They help to filter water by capturing contaminants and keep them out of our local waterways.  They also provide native Nova Scotian habitat for amphibians, pollinators and birds, and recharge urban aquifers. Click here to register.