Washington Waldorf School
Rainscapes Initiative
It all started about three years ago when local landscape designer Jenny Reed gave a presentation to the Washington Waldorf School students about bio-retention and other environmental landscaping techniques. As part of the presentation, Jenny included photos of problems (soil erosion and compacted soils) on the school site and showed how environmental landscaping could be used to help solve these problems. The students were inspired and worked to implement these landscaping techniques on their school yard. The school's Roots and Shoots Club surveyed the school site and designed a conceptual landscaping plan for the school yard.
The past two years, the Washington Waldorf School has worked to implement the student's landscaping plan. Last year the students, parents and staff planted native plants along the front of the school. The original frontage landscaping was an eyesore. Little grew in the compacted soil. The original soil was amended and native plants were planted. Now a diverse array of native plants thrives along the shady front of the school. According the school staff, the neighbors love the transformation. In the back of the school, there were other problems. Hard surfaces on the school site and adjacent properties contributed serious soil erosion. The erosion resulted in sediment entering into the Potomac River. Rather than piping the runoff directly to the stormwater main, the school decided to use landscaping to not only beautify the grounds, but also to retain and cleanse the stormwater runoff and address the soil erosion. In 2006 the school also started working on a Chesapeake Bay Trust (CBT) grant proposal for a large rain garden to address the erosion.
asphalt covered playing area resulted in significant runoff from the site.
The runoff caused soil erosion all the way to the Potomac River.
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In 2007 the CBT notified the school that they would receive a grant and the school was now ready to tackle the runoff from the school. While the school was working on the rain garden, the Parks filled in the eroded areas and built a grass swale.
(in the middle of the photo) was installed to handle the runoff from the school site.
On May 26, 2007, students, teachers and parents attended a work day to implement the final installation of the rain garden. Before the workday, the proposed rain garden area was excavated and a rain garden soil mix (sand, compost and good top soil) was added.
Some of the clayey soil was used to build a berm, but most had to be removed from the site.
Time was set aside on the workday for a rest break. During the break, the volunteers learned about why stormwater runoff is a serious problem and how rain gardens work.
in front of their new rain garden
