Water Issues We Are Facing But Not Facing Up To

New York Times series - http://projects.nytimes.com/toxic-waters

Infrastructure and progress is part of the problem. More references to come.

Natural gas drilling

Propublica has been running a whole series of articles about natural gas drilling and water contamination issues. http://www.propublica.org/series/buried-secrets-gas-drillings-environmental-threat

Many of the problems happen in the northeast but there are other cropping up all over the U.S.

Expanding our posts regarding water protection and conservation to issues about water privatization, gas drilling & contamination, oil & water and more.

We will also recommend well priced products that will help you act on your desire to protect and conserve our limited water resources.

Nothing better than morning in June (well nearly)

Up early in the morning to see the garden in the best light, in the quiet of the morning. Love it!

When is 18" too deep?

If you know you have a great deal of clay soil but you haven't done a quick infiltration test you'll never know how long it will take for rainwater will filter through your rain garden and into the ground.

We advocate shallow gardens with minimal amendments. Unless you have experience with clay keep it shallow and wide.

No rain garden should be deep. The difference between the garden rim and the top of the garden bed should be no more than 5" (with mulch). 

If you go deep get an engineer. Otherwise let the plants do their job and go shallow.

Rain gardens are the cheapest, most scaleable option

In certain areas of the country green roofs are very popular, in others it's tree planting and in still others it's rain gardens. Each of these options work well to reduce or eliminate polluted urban run-off. "Green Roofs: Are They Worth the Expense"

The only problem with choosing only one practice over another is ... "WE ALL KNOW THERE IS NOT JUST ONE ANSWER TO OUR PROBLEMS"!!!! Chicago's Mayor is obsessed with green roofs because it somehow works in with transportation climate change offsets. But by putting all marbles into one solution a lot of opportunities are missed.

Generally speaking, rain gardens are cheaper, easier and faster to install and have more benefits than green roofs.

Cleaning up the house

There is something that is affecting our water. Something that is not coming from somewhere else. It is something that is everywhere and it is caused by the things we do everyday.

This is something is known as non-point source pollution. A big word for a big problem. We can also call it Runoff. In cities it is called Polluted Urban Runoff. In rural areas it is called Polluted Farm Runoff.

Rain Garden Network focuses on Polluted Urban Runoff. Although we will talk about farm runoff from poorly managed crop growing farms and medium, large and factory poultry, pig and beef farms. 

This may sound depressing but there are answers. We hope to present the good, the bad and the regenerative powers of the Earth.

We welcome you to join us!