Rain gardens improving water quality in Nokomis East

Twenty Nokomis East residents received grants for rain garden installations. In a season or two, the native plants will send roots down deep into the soil -- improving water retention, decreasing run-off into nearby waterways, and helping to improve the quality of the local watershed. (Photo by Margie O’Loughlin)[/caption]

Managing storm water runoff is hard work, and nothing does it better than a rain garden.

Planted in a swale or hollow, perennial flowers, grasses, sedges, and ferns send their roots deep down into the soil. This improves water retention, and naturally filters out impurities as water soaks into the ground.

Raingardens reduce the amount of runoff that would otherwise carry pollutants from compacted lawns, rooftops, driveways, and streets directly into waterways through the storm sewer system.

The Nokomis East neighborhood has 20 new rain gardens this summer, thanks to a longstanding partnership between the Nokomis East Neighborhood Association (NENA) and Metro Blooms.

Lauren Hazenson, NENA program and communications manager said, “The number one environmental concern we hear from Nokomis East residents is that they want to protect their local watershed: Lake Nokomis, Lake Hiawatha, the Mississippi River, and Minnehaha Creek. Water is the most valued natural resource in our community, both for recreational activities and for visual beauty.”

NENA applied for a Hennepin County Good Steward Grant last year, and learned in January that they had been awarded $12,000. The Good Steward Grant funds small projects to improve environmental quality in Hennepin County.

Hazenson said, “We provided additional funding for the rain garden partnership out of our general fund, because it was such a high priority for residents.”

NENA and Metro Blooms have partnered for years installing pollinator gardens and boulevards along 50th and 54th streets. Hazenson said, “We felt like we hit a good stopping point with the pollinator plantings. We established a viable pollinator corridor between the Nokomis East Gateway Gardens and the Lake Nokomis Naturescape. The 2019 rain garden partnership with Metro Blooms is a continuation of native plantings in the neighborhood, but with an emphasis on capturing rainwater and snow melt.”

NENA received 218 applicants for the project, and had funding to install 20 gardens. There were two pools of applicants; the first was of addresses in the Nokomis sub-watershed, the area right around Lake Nokomis. From these addresses, five households were chosen at random. The remaining 15 grant recipients were drawn at random from the larger pool of addresses throughout the neighborhood.

Once the selection process was done, the names of the 20 grant recipients were given to Metro Blooms. They took over from there, contacting homeowners, making arrangements for site visits to help with garden planning, excavation, and plant drop offs.

Property owners paid $420-$580 depending on the number of plants they ordered and their finished garden size. The average rain garden measured 120 square feet. A comparable cost would have been about $1,500, if property owners had not received grants.

Conservation Corps Minnesota did the excavation work for this project. The regional non-profit gives young people from diverse backgrounds experiences in service-learning and environmental stewardship, while learning practical job skills. Youth and young adults (aged 15–25) who serve with Conservation Corps MN work on projects in conservation and natural resource management.

Property owners were responsible for putting their own plants in the ground.

Hazenson said, “With our pollinator garden projects, we found that having homeowners get their hands dirty helps them to better care for their plants in the long run. Rain gardens require some maintenance, just like any other kind of garden. This program really is an incentive for homeowners to make a positive change in their watershed through gardening.”

Get involved

NENA will be applying for another Hennepin County Good Steward Grant for next year. Details on this (and many other sustainability projects) will be shared at the South Minneapolis Green Fair on Saturday, April 18, 2020.

“Like the rain garden partnership, the vast majority of NENA’s programs and initiatives come from community ideas,” Hazenson said.

New members with an interest in environmental issues are welcome to visit NENA’s Green Initiatives Committee, which meets from 6:30-8 p.m. every second Wednesday of the month. The committee is open to residents, property owners, business owners and their employees within Nokomis East neighborhoods: neighborhoods include Minnehaha, Morris Park, Keewaydin, and Wenonah. Meetings are held at the NENA office, located at 4313 E. 54th St.

For more information, contact Lauren Hazenson at lauren.hazenson@nokomiseast.org.