Tana Haugen-Brown, Technical Advisor, Sherburne County Extension, 763-241-2723

Sherburne County Master Gardeners, Extension and NRCS staff, a local girl scout troop, and other community volunteers helped create the new rain garden at Orono Park in Elk River last summer. The rain garden, which features 48,000 plants, will serve as a natural infiltration system to catch stormwater and control run-off to Lake Orono, located just to the east.

Rain gardens have been shown to slow and reduce the amount of undesirable run-off reaching our lakes and rivers, capturing pollutants such as phosphorus, nitrogen, and organic matter that can affect water quality in lakes and rivers. Plants in a rain garden help by absorbing the extra water and runoff and increasing infiltration. Varieties native to Minnesota that are able to adapt to periodic flooding and saturation were used in this garden.

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