READY Rain Garden and Conservation Landscape Series

READY Rain Garden and Conservation Landscape Series

Project Team
Jim Caldwell, Stormwater Manager and Acting Director, Office of Community Sustainability, Howard County Government Cynthia Marshall, Lead Organizer, People Acting Together in Howard (PATH) Al Todd, Executive Director, Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay Regina Mitchell, HOA President, Deering Woods Condominium Association John McCoy, Watershed Manager, Columbia Association Sabrina Fu, Howard County Watershed Stewards Academy Donald Tsusaki, Project Manager, READY Lori Lilly, Operations Manager, READY Alison Santori, Design Coordinator, READY READY Team
Project Description

At the Deering Woods neighborhood, a project was installed involving a series of conservation landscapes, three rain gardens and interconnecting rock channels. The garden treats approximately 25 townhome units with a total drainage area of approximately 1.84 acres that is 27.5% impervious. The total labor and material costs to install this garden was ~$9,700, or $387 per unit. The garden was installed by the Restoring the Environment and Developing Youth (READY) program, which is a Howard County funded program that employs young adults, aged 16-26, to build rain gardens and assist with additional BMP implementation throughout the County. This project is unique since it was implemented at a multi-family residential property. While these properties house numerous residents in the Bay Watershed, they are often overlooked for retrofit due to challenges with property ownership. In addition to providing stormwater management, this project creates a functional human space through the use of rock channels and stepping stones within the practice.  Further, there is a large educational aspect of this project, extending not only to the residents, but also the young adults involved in the READY program.
To learn more about this year’s winners, check out the project files on our Google Drive account here.

Best Residential BMP

Gallery

Attachment

Attachments_merge
Download Now
Basic Project Data_READY
Download Now
project-narrative-READY-Rain-Garden-and-Conservation-Landscape-Series
Download Now
READY Rain Garden and Conservation Landscape Series
Download Now

Related Award Category

Ally Jen’s Combo BMPs: Wattles and More
2023
1st Place

Ally Jen’s Combo BMPs: Wattles and More

This project arose out of Ally’s coursework in Sustainable Horticulture and a conservation garden workshop, together with consultations with landscape designer Patricia Ceglia, to...
Read More
West Side Residence
2015
3rd Place

West Side Residence

This project involved impervious removal and installation of permeable pavement and a dry creek bed to treat property runoff and substantially improve curb appeal...
Read More
Ormbsy Rain Garden
2015
1st Place

Ormbsy Rain Garden

Mr. Ormsby installed a rain garden on his residential property to help control large volumes of stormwater runoff that were flowing over his property...
Read More