Rain Gardens

Hello! My name is Lisa, and I am the current president of the 100% volunteer-led Sustain Greenville. We are more than the Greenville Farmer’s Market and would like to show you. Over the next few months, we invite you to visit our website to learn more about the team AND to discover a new favorite sustainable activity each week. Each month, a different member will share their environmental aha’s. We’d love to hear what you think!

April: Lisa - current president
Hello, I am the current president of Sustain Greenville. During the day, I work in health care. I am married and we have several children. I have been a resident of Greenville for over 20 years and a Sustain Greenville (SGV) member for over 10 years. I enjoy being a part of SGV as I have learned so much about improving the environment and making changes that make a difference. One of my pet projects is the Christmas light and wire recycling program. I am proud that we have partnered with a recycling company that recycles every part of the wires. We collect from businesses all over our area to prevent these tons of material from ending in our landfills. Watch our website to see how we do each year!

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My second topic is all about my family’s new rain garden! We planted this in the spring of 2023. Then we had a terrible drought! We worked with Emily Henrigillis  AKA The Plant Gal LLC (wiplantgal.com) who helped us design a rain garden. She came to our house and did some calculations on what size garden we would need for the area we were planning on feeding with our gutters.  We ordered most of our plants through the Wild Ones spring plant sale (https://foxvalleyarea.wildones.org) and some through Prairie Moon Nursery (Prairiemoon.com) for what we couldn’t get locally. When the plants arrived we had to get them into the ground quickly because it was such a warm and dry spring! 
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My husband prepped the area by manually removing the sod and making some areas deeper. Planting was crazy! We have pure clay in our yard. There was not a bit of topsoil brought in when the house was built so digging was very difficult. We ended up purchasing a large drill bit to make the holes. My husband would dig the holes and our youngest daughter and I would plant the natives according to the plan. We had a lot of plants so the digging/planting process did take a few days. We planted over 100 plants! Good thing we have a well and solar to power the well because we had to water a lot at first but once they got established they started to look good. Surprisingly, we had many blooms the first year! 

What I found: The rain garden was quite a bit of work the first year but already was looking very nice by the end of the season. We had blooms early in the year and very late into the fall. I could not believe how many native bees and butterflies we would have at any given time. They never bother us either. Even the hummingbirds flocked to our garden. I am excited to pet a native bumble bee - I heard it’s a wonderful experience! The winter look of the garden was surprisingly beautiful. 

Why it is good for the environment: Natives are important to protect our native insects and birds. As we learned in our book club this year when we discussed “Nature’s Best Hope” by Douglas Tallamy, natives are a very important step in the food chain that if lost could affect humans in the way we live. Many of us understand that the Monarch butterflies need milkweed, but did you know that many birds, bees, butterflies, and even plants need each other to continue to survive as well? A rain garden takes the water from part of our roof and allows it to naturally filter down into the groundwater which prevents runoff and flooding. The plants have deep roots that purify the water. The plants also improve the soil in many ways which our soil needs! The plants are chosen because they have been here for many thousands of years and have evolved with the rest of the native creatures.

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Other: I am excited to see how these plants develop over time and fill in the space. Native plants are billed as “maintenance free”, however, I feel there will still be some work to be done, but so much less than the annuals and non-native plants I have worked with in the past.  I am looking forward to getting out to enjoy all the flying creatures who will hopefully make our yard their home because we have planted some natives. Also, I am looking forward to saving money on less mowing, less weed and feed, and saving time from a lot of mowing!

Our rain garden is not the end either! We have planted some other native gardens and some are hidden in plain sight. If you didn’t know it, you may not realize how much of our yard is native grasses, flowers, bushes, and trees. We are working on another native area in our backyard since most of our front yard is already native. We are slowly removing non-native turf grass so we will have much less area to mow - more time for ourselves! Don’t get me wrong - we are not 100% native nor probably ever will be! We have our vegetable garden and we fiercely fight with the rabbits to keep them out.  I also enjoy the spring bulbs that I interplanted around the natives. But, with each area we plant more natives, we are seeing more birds and butterflies. I can’t wait to get the lightning bugs back!
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Where to find: I try to shop locally whenever I can! The Wild Ones plant sales are amazing! I also liked Prairie Moon. There are some native nursery stores in the area as well. It is hard to pick out natives from non-native plants. Even worse - the invasive plants! Do your homework and ask questions. We are happy to help with our limited knowledge. I’d love to hear where you find your natives!
My garden is sleeping because as I write this it is snowing out. Hopefully, spring will be here soon and I will have some pictures to share. Know that you do not have to hire someone, nor does your native garden have to be large, any little bit helps! We would love to see your native plantings!

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