Monday, March 29, 2010

Portland Sewers Right as Rain -- USA Today

USA Today story on Portland Oregon rain water policies saving clean water and big bucks.

Friday, March 26, 2010

Rain Garden poster special offer





Good Nature's Rain Garden


Special conservation district and stormwater outreach and education offer:

$14.99/$25 ea laminated
Buy 2 get 2 FREE
Order 30+ for $5 ea
$2.99 ea per 100 --save 80%
$2.50 ea for 500+


Over 14,000 sold.  Get yours today to promote clean water practices

Order yours by calling 800 631 3086 or write Tim@ Good Nature Publishing

Rain Garden poster teaches better than anything what to plant where in a rain garden. Beautiful art painted by John C. Pitcher.

See the new Love Your Stream for K-5th grade, and Low Impact Living posters, too.

best fishes,

Timothy

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Chesapeake Bay Rain Garden Native Plant Species List

Starter Kit for Chesapeak Bay Rain Garden Poster.

Every good poster must start with a horticultural dream scene. What better way to seed dreams of beautiful plants living in rain garden Eden than these species?

Here is a list from Chesapeake Ecology Center to start us off.

Common Name Scientific Name Basic Growing Requirements Average Size

Ferns

Cinnamon Fern Osmunda cinnamomea Sun to shade; wet to moist soil 2-5’
Royal Fern Osmunda regalis Sun to shade; wet to moist soil 1.5-6’

Grasses and sedges
Broomsedge Andropogon virginicus Sun; wet to dry soil 1-3’
Switchgrass Panicum virgatum Sun; wet to dry soil 3-6’
Tussock Sedge Carex stricta Sun; wet to moist soil 1-3.5’
Virginia Wild Rye Elymus virginicus Sun to shade; moist to dry soil 1.5-5’

Herbaceous flowering perennials

Beebalm Monarda didyma Sun to partial shade; wet to moist soil 2-5’
Blue Flag Iris Iris versicolor Sun to partial shade; wet to moist soil 3’
Cardinal Flower Lobelia cardinalis Sun to partial shade; wet to moist soil 2-4’
Foxglove Beardtongue Penstemon digitalis Sun to partial shade; moist to dry soil 2-5’
Joe Pye Weed Eupatorium fistulosum Sun to partial shade; wet to moist soil 1.5-10’
Mistflower Conoclinium colestinum Sun to shade; wet to moist soil 1.3-5’
Narrow-Leaved Mountain Mint Pycnanthemum tenuifolium Sun to partial shade; moist to dry soil 1.5-2.5’
New York Ironweed Vernonia noveboracensis Sun to partial shade; wet to moist soil 3.5-8’
Swamp Milkweed Asclepias incarnata Sun to partial shade; wet to moist soil 4-6’
Swamp Sunflower Helianthus angustifolius Sun; wet to moist soil 1.5-5.5’
Turtlehead Chelone glabra Sun to partial shade; wet to moist soil 1.5-6.5’

Shrubs

American Beautyberry Callicarpa americana Sun to partial shade; moist to dry soil 6’
Black Chokeberry Photinia melanocarpa Sun to partial shade; wet to dry soil 3-6’
Buttonbush Cephalanthus occidentalis Sun to shade; wet to moist soil 6-12’
Elderberry Sambucus nigra Sun to shade; wet to dry soil 6-12’
Highbush Blueberry Vaccinium corymbosum Sun to partial shade; wet to dry soil 6-12’
Inkberry Ilex glabra Sun to shade; moist to dry soil 6-10’
Northern Bayberry Morella pensylvanica Sun to partial shade; wet to dry soil 5-10’
Oak Leaf Hydrangea Hydrangea quercifolia Sun to partial shade; moist soil 4-6’
Red Chokeberry Photinia pyrifolia Sun to partial shade; wet to dry soil 1.5-13’
Silky Dogwood Cornus amomum Sun to partial shade; wet to moist soil 6-12’
Spicebush Lindera benzoin Partial shade to shade; wet to moist soil 6.5-16’
Southern Arrowwood Viburnum dentatum Sun to shade; wet to dry soil 10-15’
Sweet Pepperbush Clethra alnifolia Partial shade to shade; wet to moist soil 6-12’
Virginia Sweetspire Itea virginica Sun to shade; wet to moist soil 6-10’
Wax Myrtle, Southern bayberry Morella cerifera Sun to partial shade; wet to dry soil 6-15’
Winterberry Ilex verticillata Sun to shade; wet to moist soil 6-12’

Trees
American Holly Ilex opaca Sun to shade; moist soil 15-50’
Red Maple Acer rubrum Sun to partial shade; wet to moist soil 40-100’
River Birch Betula nigra Sun to partial shade; wet to moist soil 50-75’
Sweetbay Magnolia Magnolia virginiana Sun to shade; wet to moist soil 12-30’

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Chesapeake Bay Rain Garden poster -- 90 days


Work has begun on a cool new Chesapeake Bay Rain Garden poster.

I have been smitten by rain gardens-- I didn't know much about them a couple years ago. Making a rain garden poster for a team of ten agencies in Oregon and Washington changed all that.

This seemed like a novelty project and funny way to keep rain water clean. But then I learned about the many benefits to us when we let rain water perk into the soil instead of down the street into a gutter, storm drain and out to sea.

Once you look at our settlement's natural history-- you see what used to be here in Seattle (or any urban area) in terms of forests and wetlands cut and paved over, meadows turned to driveways and streets, one begins to see rain gardens as evolutionary and necessary steps for restoration.

Rain gardens bring together our desire for all that is good in a garden. By that I mean the healing nature of sticking your hands in the ground, moving soil, making amends to yourself for spending so much time in front of a screen and so little with nature.

And rain gardens are the interconnective tissue our cities need to grow right now. We can't afford to keep driving and letting cars dominate the landscape. The hidden costs are coming to the surface, just as the true costs of all the water pollution is, too.

We need rain gardens the same way we need parks-- to attract our better selves, to grow biodiversity, to find ourselves in cities going wild.

And as we turn our yards into rain gardens we give rain a chance to slow, seep and soak into the ground, restoring groundwater.

There are days when the big rain storms come blowing up from the south and I am certain the rain is searching for the big trees that used to live here.

But how long will the big rains keep coming back if they cannot find their friends the trees? This is not just a poetic desire. Look at the history of empires that cut their forests down, and what happened after they were cut-- turned to desert.

I believe rain gardens, along with swales, permeable pavement, rain barrels for certain areas, cisterns for most people, gray water capture and other ways to create low impact living are crucial to greening our cities.

I see a world where my rain garden acts as a little park in my yard. And I want to live in a city full of soft gravel and earth paths that connect me to walking, to transit, to parks and hedgerows growing where two and four land streets once dominated our landscapes.

I can see the wildlife corridors that we have built by accident-- the Burke Gillman train tracks that led loggers from the mountain to the mill are now now bike paths, coyote paths,too. We need more of these paths all over.

And I see the need for these paths all over cities. We need to rewild the human settlements, to bring nature back to our everyday world, and not just a novelty on a webcam.

Rain gardens are a start toward that world restored. I see hedgerows growing up 4th Avenue in downtown Seattle, with salmon streams beginning at the Olympic Sculpture Park and running through to Seattle Center, into downtown. I see more trails like the Burke growing out of streets abandoned for a greater good.

How about you? What is your vision for your home?

After learning so much from the Rain Garden and Low Impact Living poster, Love Your Stream artwork for the west coast, I decided we could help change the world on the east coast, too.

Art changes lives, gives people time to take in the changes we need to make, helps visualize the world transformed. And art = the 1000 words. It gets through to those of us who are visual learners. Chesapeake Bay is full of people working to fend off development pressures, to protect streams,rivers, estuaries. So I hope to find some kindred spirits to co sponsor the Chesapeake Bay Rain Garden poster in the coming weeks.

Stay tuned.

Best fishes,
Timothy Colman, publisher
Good Nature Publishing
800 631 3086