WCAX.COM Local Vermont News, Weather and Sports-Rain Gardens Take Root

Rain Gardens Take Root

There's a new kind of garden that's not just about looking nice, but also stopping phosphorus from polluting Lake Champlain.

It's called a rain garden. One is going in at the Hunger Mountain Co-op in Montpelier. The soil and plants help keep runoff from the parking lot from reaching the Winooski River and ultimately Lake Champlain.

Trout Unlimited paid for the work-- about $500. Poor water quality seriously impacts fishing.

The goal of the project is to get more people and businesses thinking about what they can do in their backyard. The group has planted other rain gardens at Mount Mansfield Union High School and plans to do another one at the Camels Hump State Park.

"It's not going to be that all the phosphorus coming out of the Winooski will be treated but if every home does something like this and every business has a rain garden that's when we'll start seeing the effects and seeing the improvement of habitat within the stream and the water quality," said Emma Melvin of UVM Extension.

The project also included pulling up invasive plants near the Co-op like Japanese Barberry and burning bush and then replacing them with native plants.

Kristin Carlson - WCAX News