How Does Your Garden Grow?
Another growing season is upon us! As you make plans for gardening and landscape projects, consider incorporating some techniques that will allow your green thumb to keep local waterways blue and healthy. When planted in the right locations, flowers, shrubs and trees help to protect streams and lakes from pollution by serving as living filters that soak up water, trap contaminants, and prevent soil erosion. To have a yard that is both beautiful and lake-friendly, consider some of the steps below:
- No Mow Zone... Rather than mowing right to the edge, create a no-mow zone along streambanks and shorelines. A strip of tall grass, wildflowers, shrubs, or a perrenial garden will act as a natural buffer between the stream or lake and other land uses.
- Shoreline Stabilizers... Plant woody shrubs or trees along streams and shorelines. Shurbs and trees have strong root systems that hold the soil together adn stabilize the bank. Preventing shoreline erosion will not only help protect your property from wave action and washouts, but also keep soil and mud out of the water!
- Grow a Rain Garden... A rain garden planted next to a downspout can soak up water that could otherwise wash into stormdrains and ditches. Rain gardens have a unique pie-pan shaped bottom that fills with a few inches of water during a storm, and then soaks into the soil to nourish plants and replenish groundwater.
- Install a Rain Barrel... Storing rainwater with a rain barrel is an easy wal to put the water coming out of your gutter to good use. Release the water during dry weather and it will benefit your lawn, garden, and the lake!
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