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The Des Moines area group met on Feb. 25 for an interesting meeting learning about rain gardens by Inger Lamb from the Iowa Prairie Network. Inger stressed that these gardens can be built with little effort in an already low spot in your yard where rainwater collects. These gardens sound great as they require no watering and no fertilizer! Just prepare the soil (remove any grass), plant, and enjoy.
The plant list she gave us listed many native flowering prairie plants that grow very well in our area and can tolerate being very wet and then very dry as the summer progresses without dying out! They develop deep roots and help restore the land and filter the rain and runoff water prior to it going into our storm sewer systems. These rain gardens sound a little like our bog gardens but they are not lined and do dry out as the water slowly drains away. She explained some some towns and cities are constructing these rain gardens near new construction but often plant them only with grass instead of native prairie flowers which look so much better! Additionally using only grass does not provide the deep root system that incorporates a lot of filtration of the runoff.
Our next meeting will be Wednesday, March 24 at 7 PM at the ISU Extension office on E. 14th north of Des Moines. We want to have a program on opening our ponds for the summer and are in the process of contacting Kenn Outzen of Jewell so see if he can do this. April plans include a program on pond construction presented by Doug Rieck.
The Top of Iowa Water Garden Association will meet Monday, March 15 at 7:00pm in the Lakeview Room of the Band Shell in Clear Lake. It is located in City Park next to the lake at the end of Main Street. Our speaker for the evening will be Wayne Petersen of URBAN (Urban Resources and Borderland Alliance Network). The topic will be Rain Gardens. The presentation is a cooperative effort between the TOI Association and the Clear Project of Clear Lake. Participants will learn how to create a colorful garden which will serve to filter and remove bacteria and excess runoff chemicals from rainwater.