Very excited about a project that is coming more and more into focus as we get closer to spring 2018. A little less than a year ago, we were awarded a grant from American Water to build the first-ever Rain Park in South Orange, NJ.
The initial construction of the project was completed at the end of Oct 2017. Though we were scheduled to plant it with lots of amazing native plants, it was a little too close to the first frost date in New Jersey, so we opted to way until April 2018 to actually do the planting.
That said, I completed some graphics for the project and wanted to share them. This first is a site plan that shows were the Rain Park is in South Orange, NJ.
The initial construction of the project was completed at the end of Oct 2017. Though we were scheduled to plant it with lots of amazing native plants, it was a little too close to the first frost date in New Jersey, so we opted to way until April 2018 to actually do the planting.
That said, I completed some graphics for the project and wanted to share them. This first is a site plan that shows were the Rain Park is in South Orange, NJ.
The image above is a planting plan created for the project. The planting plan is an attempt at how Piet Oudolf creates his planting plans. I think ours is a good try, but Oudolf is still the king of creative planting plan drawings.
This third image is how the Rain Park will look once the plants have matured. This may take a couple of years. We are going to plant the Rain Park with seed (and maybe some plugs).
The plants we selected for the space are native perennials and grasses. They represent some of my favorite plants like B. autrailis (which takes 2 to 3 years to really branch out) and E. pallida (one of the most beautiful coneflowers widely available on the market).
One of the primary goals of the Rain Park is to redefine how we deal with stormwater. The plants and the way the space is built reduces the amount of stormwater flowing into the river significantly. All of the rainwater (and snowmelt) that runs across the Rain Park are filtered by the plants growing there. This has lots of benefits downstream for people and wildlife alike.
The plants we selected for the space are native perennials and grasses. They represent some of my favorite plants like B. autrailis (which takes 2 to 3 years to really branch out) and E. pallida (one of the most beautiful coneflowers widely available on the market).
One of the primary goals of the Rain Park is to redefine how we deal with stormwater. The plants and the way the space is built reduces the amount of stormwater flowing into the river significantly. All of the rainwater (and snowmelt) that runs across the Rain Park are filtered by the plants growing there. This has lots of benefits downstream for people and wildlife alike.
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