Contact: Tammy Lane • First Posted: Tuesday, September 23, 2008

The Bluegrass Rain Garden Alliance has awarded Henry Clay High School a $500 grant to help build demonstration rain gardens.  

“The rain garden will serve as our ‘water’ school improvement project in our effort to complete the Kentucky Green and Healthy Schools program in May 2009,” biology teacher Tresine Logsdon said. “The rain garden will also be used as an educational resource for our biology and Earth/space classes during our ecology units.” 

Rain gardens capture rainwater from downspouts or parking lots to allow it time to soak into the ground instead of running off into the storm-water system and nearby creeks. Rain gardens can improve water quality, help prevent flooding and serve as excellent teaching tools. 

The Henry Clay site, in a section of campus adjacent to Fontaine Road, was chosen because of its visibility and geological characteristics that will make it a perfect fit for water-loving, indigenous plants, Logsdon said. 

Ken Clark, co-sponsor of the school’s Go Green Club, is the principal planner. He noted that club president Catherine Mannon, a senior, has helped in the design phases of the project. 

“She has researched the plants we will have and was out on the location assisting me with the physical layout of the garden,” Clark said. “This has been an awesome learning experience for us all.” 

Plans are also in the works for a rain garden at Tates Creek Middle School this spring.  

Henry Clay hopes to construct two separate rain gardens. “The curving garden will serve the initial parking lot water and a drain that protrudes the ground just below the parking lot,” Clark explained. “The oval-shaped garden will be placed in front of the storm drain to add as a last barrier for any runoff that does not get filtered from the curving garden.” 

The site will be filled with a variety of plants and flowers, including purple cress, trillium, buttercup, sweet flag, creeping phlox, Virginia bluebells, dockweed, Southern water plantain, wild senna, passionflower, jewelweed, downy wood mint and ox-eye sunflower. 

The design should be completed by December, and the garden built by March in cooperation with the Go Green Club (open to all Henry Clay students) and Liberal Arts Academy biology students.  

“With donated supplies and a large volunteer student work force, we do not anticipate (needing) much funds beyond plants,” Logsdon said. 

For more details on rain gardens, see www.bluegrassraingardenalliance.org/.