About Our Rain Garden Program

Rain Gardens in the News

Washtenaw County’s Rain Garden Program began in 2005 with Michigan Department of Environmental Quality grant funding. We worked with homeowners to plan, design, and install rain gardens. Since then, homeowners have learned how to install rain gardens through our Rain Garden Assistance visits and the Master Rain Gardener program. Today, the program continues to assist homeowners in creating and installing rain gardens on their property.

Now the tally is over 1,000 gardens!

City of Ann Arbor Green Stormwater Infrastructure

Washtenaw County partners with The City of Ann Arbor on stormwater education. The City of Ann Arbor owns over 100 green stormwater infrastructure features, such as rain gardens, wetlands, bio-retention basins, and bio-swales. These features capture, store, and clean stormwater. Since 2015, the Water Resources Commissioner’s Office has collaborated to maintain and care for the public rain gardens. 

Through volunteers, contractors, and shared projects across departments, we have been caring for the 30 acres of green stormwater infrastructure. To maintain the gardens, we do controlled burns, remove invasive species, clean out sediment from inlets, collect native seeds, plant, and transplant vegetation. 

To learn more about the cost to maintain green infrastructure, see this snapshot from 2017 and 2018: Annual Green Infrastructure Maintenance Costs

Rain gardens capture stormwater runoff before it pollutes our local rivers - while providing beautiful garden scapes throughout the growing season.

Rain Garden Illustration