Rain garden begins to take shape by Highlands Middle School in Harrison
They wore gloves, knee pads and boots as they worked in the mud and the rain.
Volunteers, numbering between 15 and 20, turned out Monday morning to help populate Harrison’s new rain garden, built on the grounds of Highlands Middle School at Broadview Boulevard and California Avenue.
“Everyone here loves working with plants and nature,” volunteer Cynthia Adams said. “I think we’ll get it done.”
Diana Taiclet, another volunteer who lives just down the street, said she is looking forward to walking to the garden with her dogs.
“This is my resting spot when I walk my dogs,” she said.
She called the rain garden “wonderful.”
“We need more of these everywhere,” she said. “We wouldn’t have the flooding problem we have.”
The rain garden is part of a $125,000 Western Pennsylvania Conservancy project funded by a grant from The Pittsburgh Foundation. It also included tree plantings and an inventory and analysis of public trees in the township.
The rain garden will help control flooding by capturing, retaining and slowly releasing rain water into the ground, instead of it rushing into a storm sewer, said Nina Chase, principal and owner of Merritt Chase, a landscape architecture and urban design firm.
“We’re slowing down the water so we reduce flash flooding,” she said. “This summer is a perfect example of why we need more green infrastructure.”
Almost 2,000 plants were put in Monday. The 20 different types included native grasses, irises, cone flower and aster.
A little bit of construction and cleanup work remain, and trees will be planted in the fall, Chase said.
Construction of the rain garden was hindered by this summer’s extremely wet weather. “We did have a lot of rain delays,” Chase said.
But even before it was fully finished, the rain garden was working.
“It is capturing a lot of rain water coming off this hillside,” Chase said.
Chase said the middle school grounds were designed with native trees to teach students about native vegetation. The rain garden will do the same, and signs will be installed identifying its plants.
“We’re showcasing native wetland plants that can provide a teaching moment for students,” she said.
Brian C. Rittmeyer, a Pittsburgh native and graduate of Penn State University's Schreyer Honors College, has been with the Trib since December 2000. He can be reached at brittmeyer@triblive.com.
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