Train to be a Master Rain Gardener!Learn to design and install your own rain garden and be the rain garden expert in your neighborhood. Master Rain Gardeners help friends and neighbors to learn about, design, and plant rain gardens.
What is a rain garden? Rain gardens work with nature to collect and filter rainwater that runs off impervious surfaces like rooftops and driveways. Impervious surfaces lead to increases in surface runoff and often result in increased flooding and stream bank erosion. As water travels over impervious surfaces, it also has the potential to pick up pollutants. Polluted stormwater runoff enters our rivers and lakes and is one of the leading threats to water quality in the United States. Rain gardens naturally manage stormwater by infiltrating precipitation and allowing it to soak into the ground rather than sending it directly to storm sewers and nearby streams untreated.
The Master Rain Gardener Program will teach you how to manage rainwater in your own yard. We will have a VIRTUAL orientation class on June 7, 2021, followed by a series of online courses. The online courses will be held via zoom meetings. The first lesson will be discussed on June 14, 2021 and the last will be discussed on July 19, 2021. You are able to complete the courses at your convenience within the allotted course time. Summit SWCD staff will provide you with feedback on your weekly homework assignments and quizzes.
Upon completion of the course, you will receive your Master Rain Gardener certificate. Completion of the course includes installing your own rain garden, or helping to install or maintain a community rain garden as a volunteer.
Registration and payment must be received by May 25.
Accepted forms of payment include cash/check.