News and Announcements
Rain Garden Helps Green the ICS Playground
December 9, 2009
By Janet Pinkerton
Under the gathering leaves, in the shallow swale beside the Lombard Street side of the playground fence, a rain garden is growing at Independence Charter School.
The rain garden was planted in October by ICS seventh grade science students guided by ICS parent and Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (PHS) staffer Julie Snell. As the plants take root, the rain garden will help absorb the storm water runoff from the playground and also provide ICS students with a new micro-environment in which to play, learn and explore.
The rain garden is a part of ICS’s larger environmental plan, designed with the assistance of PHS and the Philadelphia Water Department’s Office of Watersheds, to minimize the amount of rainwater running off the playground and into the Philadelphia sewer system. Philadelphia is an old city with Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) system. During dry conditions and light rainfall, the CSO system functions. But during heavy rainstorms, storm water runoff surges into the sewer system, and the system gets over loaded. At these times, storm water and sanitary wastewater are both dumped into local streams and rivers.
ICS’s playground includes key structures, including the rain garden, that reduce the amount of rainwater it shunts into the sewer system. Approximately 3,000 sq. ft. of pervious paving allows water to penetrate to the ground below. The recently dedicated brick walkway, leading to the playground gate and inset with bricks emblazoned with the names of donors and honorees, slopes gently to channel rainwater from the playground into the rain garden. When rainwater falls onto the brick area, it is directed to a rock river and into the rain garden’s shallow swale. There, the collected water filters down through the soil with the help of the rain garden plants.
Independence Charter students on the donor brick walkway.
These improvements were designed this spring with the assistance of PHS and was constructed during Summer 2009 by ThinkGreen LLC, a Glenside landscape architecture, construction and ecological design firm.
A Philadelphia Green project manager for the PHS, Snell explains that plants used for rain gardens are chosen because they are adaptable, “The plants you chose have to be able to withstand wet conditions and long periods of dry conditions Many native grasses and perennials work because they have deep root systems that channel into the ground and help water infiltrate into the soil.”
In the middle of the swale, where soil conditions will be the wettest, ICS seventh graders planted Joe Pye Weed and also a red stem dogwood, a flowering shrub. The sides of the slopes surrounding the swale are planted with grasses and perennials, including coneflower, Texas blue star, Feather Reed Gras, coral bells and goldenrod.
Independence Charter rain garden and playground.
At the center of the rain garden, a raised drain channels any overflow into the sewers. A small service berry tree (Amelanchier laevis) was planted close to the walkway..
In addition, playground shrubs originally planted in 2008 but later relocated while the rain garden was graded, including winterberry holly and arrowwood viburnum, will be replanted. Some shrubs will be replanted within the rain garden, others further along the front of the playground to create one larger garden. ICS is working with the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society to develop a comprehensive master plan for the entire school lot.
Work on the garden is ongoing “the first two years are key to getting the plants established,” says Julie Snell. “But there is always something to do in the garden!” If you would like more information or would like to help out with the ICS school yard garden .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
