Gip-c Program Launches
copyright: chambersdesign
Green infrastructure has been a growing topic for along time especially over the last 2 or 3 decades. It’s the effort to address issues like flooding due to rainwater with natural systems instead of man-made structures. An example is to create a rain garden that captures runoff and lets it slowly drain into the soil versus putting the water into a pipe directed to a nearby river or stream. We’ve built dozens of these types of system using native-ish plants and stone. It’s popular with municipalities and organizations too. They use them to showcase this different way of thinking about mitigating stormwater. There’s always a ton of work that goes into making green infrastructure from the design to the installation - but typically, it’s a group effort that people enjoy being involved. After it’s built, sometimes (read often), these systems begin to need maintenance, and at first, maintenance might be provided. However, as time goes by, the management slowly stops or is simply lumped into lawn care. That doesn’t work very well. For these next generation green systems to really prosper, they need perennial care - that is long-term year after year care - with specialized knowledge. There seems to be a big absence of this kind of fastidious foresight, so we’ve launched the GIP-C program to help remedy this problem.
how’d we get here?
Talking about green infrastructure can get technical fast. What is infrastructure anyhow? And how is it green? The term refers to using natural systems and processes to deal with the overabundance of stormwater in localized areas. There’s a lot of unpack with that sentence. First, infrastructure is a big topic that ranges from transportation to communication to water systems. Bridges, airports, high-speed internet, food production and education can all be seen within the topic of infrastructure. Green infrastructure is puling out of that bigger topic the issue of how we have managed rainwater (and to a lesser degree snowmelt) throughout the ages. When it rains, water runs off roofs and roads and yards and parking lots. We’ve all seen this happen, and we might even take it for granted. It normally flows along a path to a grate and disappears, and then goes….bye bye. Or at least, that’s the way most people consider it. But the how it flows to the grate and where it actually goes is this huge industry with roots as far back as the beginning of the Roman Empire.
People spend their entire careers on this topic. For the most part, stormwater has been dealt with what is called Heavy or Grey systems. That is, with asphalt, concrete, pipes and steel. Water flows across a surface such as a parking lot of road made of asphalt or concrete through a grate made of steel into a pipe system made of more steel or concrete (or plastic) and is moved as fast as possible to a nearby waterbody be it a river, stream, creek or lake….or man-made body like a reservoir or stormwater basin. This approach is so pervasive that almost every river has been converted into a stormwater basin throughout the United States. Whenever you see a streamed or riverbed that is very steep with a creek at the bottom, it’s been modified from a natural water system into a stormwater basin.
These systems aren’t working as well they use to work - and so, there’s a need for something else. Enter, green infrastructure. Green infrastructure acts as an additional element to the existing grey infrastructure. It reduces the amount of rainwater flowing into the gray infrastructure, because what we’ve discovered is that these older systems work far too well at moving water from all of the different places like roofs and driveways and yards into the rivers. Too much of the stormwater is ending up in them. Too much water causes the system to overflow and when the basins overflow you get flooding. So green infrastructure is geared to stopping or slowing down the waters journey from your front yard or driveway to the steel grates. One of the most popular ways to do this is with a rain garden.
Rain gardens need attention
Rain gardens are great. We’ve been designing and building them for years. When done right, a rain garden can look like any other planted space such as the examples in the images above. When we design them, we incorporate new perennial methods to the plants selected. This adds a quality many miss. How they help this issue of downstream flooding is by collecting rainwater within it and allowing it to slowly infiltrate into the ground. You can capture hundreds, if not thousands of gallons of water with one rain garden thereby eliminating all of that water going to the local creek that could potentially causing flooding in the next town. All you have to do is install it and then keep it maintenance for long-term performance.
Yet, it’s the maintenance that is the hard part.
In all honesty, designing and installing them isn’t always easy. Rain gardens have been billed as the super easy and effective way to address stormwater. And that’s half right. But after over a decade of doing this type of work, easy makes it sound like all you have to do is watch a few videos and read some brochures and you can DIY it yourself. Yes, maybe. But the maintenance isn’t so straightforward. You really need to have a gardeners eye along with a well rounded knowledge-base about different plants to keep the rain garden looking refreshed and exciting where people continue to want to be part of its life. Too often, the maintenance of rain gardens are left to a landscaper crew that cuts grass and removes leaves. But there’s more to it than that. When I go around and visit rain gardens that were installed 3, 4 or 5 years ago (or longer), I don’t find thriving gardens that are full of life and excitement. I find plots that look like they’ve been forgotten , neglected and mismanaged. Truth be told, I totally understand why. It’s not easy to keep a standard garden looking amazing. It takes regular, perennial care. Perennial care isn’t referring to the plants but to the idea that the care happens again and again year after year. This is gardening. But you can’t ask a gardener if gardening is easy. They will say it’s totally easy, but it’s like asking a mason of building a stone wall is easy. He does it everyday so he will likely say it’s completely easy.
In past, we have installed a rain garden and the client didn’t have us come by to check on it. And in 2 years, it’s in shambles. When we see it’s overgrown and neglected, we have to give them they bad news that to revive it will be expensive.
In contract, when we install a garden and we are able to come by to check on it. We have the chance to remove unwanted plants before they take over. We can recommend adding a few plants here and there. We can keep it maturing and actually enhance its beauty. And fun enough, regular visits cost a fraction of what it would cost if they let it fall apart. For a while now, I’ve been thinking about how I can help make green infrastructure more interesting for people. After lots of consideration, I’ve launched the Green Infrastructure Perennial Care Program, GIP-C (pronounced gypsy) for short. It’s pretty straightforward - we are asking municipalities and organizations to let us help them with their existing rain gardens to be showcases for stormwater management. The GIP-C Program aims to rehabilitate, improve and beautify existing green infrastructure throughout Essex, Union and Morris County. We become the experts to undertake regular maintenance that renders obvious benefits for targeted rain gardens. In the spirit of helping our neighbors, we offer many of the necessary services to manage rain gardens pro bono. These services include labor to clean, weed, prune and replant targeted rain gardens as well as assistance in selecting the right elements to increase its splendor. Many rain gardens were created during the last several decades to showcase how easy it is to manage stormwater. Tremendous determination was needed to make these projects reality. However, after the excitement lags and the rain gardens go unkept.
Little by LIttle adds to Much
We have installed dozens of rain gardens throughout New Jersey. The one thing we’ve learned is that they require specialized knowledge to successfully perform long after the original ribbon cutting. While funding is often available for the creation of green infrastructure, it is difficult for non-profits and towns to know how to effectively spend on maintenance to get the ideal outcome. Perennial care is far less expensive when done regularly and produces far greater results. The added benefit is that as people see their neighborhood rain garden thriving, they continue to be excited and engaged in its upkeep. What do we mean by regular perennial care? We suggest 3 to 4 maintenance visits between late March to late October. These visits are scheduled to be around the time that the new cycle of weed would often appear. We want to remove these weeds before they can overtake the space. During each visit, we will provide an evaluation that pinpoints what’s working, what’s not working and any potential problems. We provide a list of any suggested plants or other features that could be added to intensify the attractiveness of the system. All suggestions are aimed at uncovering the ultimate beauty nature can express within the rain garden. It’s not a one-stop solution, we think about this process as a multi-year progression.
Along with the practical help, we provide educational materials for the rain garden in the form of signs that help visitors know what’s happening. These signs will direct people to helpful information about why we are improving the rain garden along with any future enhancements. We sometimes add signage that identifies all of the wonderful plants as well as how green infrastructure works and how people can apply green infrastructure to their yards. We think this is a win-win for everyone involved.