Washington County Enterprise-Leader
Students Plan Rain Garden
Lynch Middle School Receives Grant
FARMINGTON — Site work started last week to eventually turn a courtyard at Lynch Middle School into a rain garden, an outdoor classroom and wildlife area.
The school received a $2,800 rain garden project grant from the Illinois River Watershed Partnership and this money will be used to bring in soil, sand, top soil and compost to prepare the area for improving the outdoor space.
Lynch art teacher Gretchen Wilkes and colleagues Mallory Toggle, Shawn Bell and Janne Jones are heading up the project and hope to have others become members of the “Friends of the Courtyard.”
She read an article about rain gardens and said she realized the project would be a good fit for the middle school's courtyard.
The 870 square foot space is located in the back of the school between B and D halls. The area has a large concrete pad, a few trees, picnic tables and air conditioning units.
Wilkes said she's passionate about taking care of the earth and a rain garden meets that need.
“It goes along with my value system of being good stewards of the earth,” Wilkes said. “There are little, local efforts we can do to improve the ecology.”
The purpose of the rain garden grant is to help organizations, such as schools, churches and other public groups, to create the gardens within the Illinois River and Beaver Lake watersheds.
Simply put, a rain garden is an attractive garden with one purpose - to reduce the amount of rain water and pollutants entering streams, rivers and lakes, according to a pamphlet from the Illinois River Watershed Partnership.
The garden allows runoff from roofs, driveways, parking lots and lawns to filter through the ground and remain on-site, instead of discharging to the storm drain system.
Wilkes said the middle school's rain garden will have about 400 plants. However, she said sponsors are needed to help purchase the plants and volunteers will be needed to work in the garden.
The rain garden is part of a larger effort by the school to transform the entire courtyard into an outdoor classroom and wildlife area.
Wilkes said this will include building raised planting beds, establishing a composting station and adding a telescope pad. Other plans include bird, bat and butterfly houses to begin establishing a wildlife habitat.
“Ultimately, our goal is to landscape the entire area with a variety of plantings, trees and walkways, thus creating a beautiful outdoor space that will be used for educational purposes and also by the community,” Wilkes added.
To accomplish these goals, she said the school will seek financial assistance through grants and business partnerships For more information or to volunteer to help with the project, contact Wilkes at gwilkes@farmcards.org.