Make your new house a home that improves our community
Many Fort Wayne residents still do not know that you may be able to receive free plants or a cash incentive from the City of Fort Wayne to help you build a rain garden.
The goal of Fort Wayne City Utilities’ Rain Garden incentive program, now in its fourth year, is to control storm-water runoff while creating a beautiful landscaping.
A rain garden is an area landscaped with native plants that holds rain water runoff for a short time and helps it soak into the ground. Rain water can be directed to the rain garden from a downspout, driveway or other hard surface area.
The rain garden is slightly below the grade of the yard so that it acts like a mini detention pond holding a few inches of rain water after a storm. Within a day or so, the native plants in the garden help the standing water “infiltrate” into the ground.
INTERESTING FACT
Will a rain garden be a breeding ground for mosquitoes?
No. Properly designed rain gardens are mosquito death traps because the water soaks into the ground within a day or so. The mosquito life cycle takes place in standing water and lasts seven to 12 days.
Mosquitoes lay eggs in standing water. The eggs hatch into larva and then grow into flying insects. If a mosquito lays its eggs in a rain garden with standing water and the water soaks into the ground, the eggs won’t have an opportunity to develop and will die.
Money to Make Your Yard Beautiful
In order to qualify for the City of Fort Wayne’s Rain Garden Incentive Program to receive a cash payment or free plants, just attend one of the City’s Rain Garden Workshops to help you determine the best location and size for a rain garden on your home.
And City Utilities has teamed with Fort Wayne businesses selling locally grown, native perennial plants at big discounts.
Why Rain Gardens?
Rain gardens have several benefits: they can reduce the amount of runoff going into the City of Fort Wayne’s old combined sewer system. This can mean less sewer backups and less sewage discharged to the rivers. In areas where sewers carry stormwater only, rain gardens can help reduce erosion so less sediment goes into the storm sewers. And because stormwater receives no treatment before it goes into a pond, stream or river, rain gardens can help reduce pollutants in our water ways by filtering some of the stormwater before it gets into the storm sewer. By helping soak more water into the ground, rain gardens may help replenish aquifers – drinking water sources for people with wells.
More information about Fort Wayne rain gardens and cash payments through Fort Wayne’s Rain Garden Incentive Program go to: www.catchingrainfw.org
You can also contact Mary B. Lopez, Admin Assistant City of Fort Wayne, (260)427-6050
We hope this helps spring you into a great year!
