25th anniversary of Phenology and the KAXE Rain Garden

Extension educator with the U of MN Extension Service Mary Blickendorfer joined Scott Hall on the Morning Show today to talk about the new rain garden at KAXE to celebrate 25 years of the Phenology Show with John Latimer.

Mary explained that a rain garden is not a pond - and that it does not need to be next to a body of water. "Anyone who owns property and a house can have a rain garden" she said. "Rain gardens help water quality - they reduce flooding, improve groundwater..."

Unlike a pond, a rain garden is a temporary collector of water. If the water were to sit more than 48 hours and collect it would be a mosquito breeding ground. With a rain garden at KAXE on the Mississippi River, the rain will soak into the soil and be transpired into plants and back out into the atmosphere during that 48 hour time period.

Mary is going to be on The Morning Show with Scott as the rain garden proceeds. The next step is to get Gopher One out to make sure we are safe and not hitting any power lines. After that, we'll have to work on getting rid of some plants we don't want like tansy and white cockle...

The good news Mary told Scott, is that the soil is good - loamy sand to sandy loamy.

The other step is to pick out an array of Minnesota Native plants for the rain garden. What do you recommend? Do you have a rain garden? We'd love your advice!

If you are interested in rain gardens, Mary suggested doing some online research. Check out these sites:
Maplewood, Minnesota's Rain Garden Project

MN Conservation article
University of Wisconsin Rain Garden information
Blue Thumb

Rain Garden Network