The Marion Garden Group’s April meeting will be held at St. Gabriel’s Parish Hall (Corner South & Front Streets, Marion) on Tuesday, April 4 at 9:00 am. This event is open to the public. It deals with an important issue that affects all of us living along the Southcoast and inland: “Rain Gardens: Solutions for Managing Stormwater Runoff.” The featured speaker, Professor Tom Benjamin, will present some of his award winning concepts in sustainable landscape design.
Polluted runoff is one of the greatest threats to clean water in America. As cities and towns grow, forests and meadows are replaced with roads, driveways, parking lots and other commercial surfaces. When it rains, the water runs off and picks up fertilizer, oil, pesticides, dirt, bacteria and other pollutants as it makes its way through storm drains – untreated – to our streams, rivers and the ocean. Rain Gardens provide a cost-effective, attractive and environmentally sound solution to managing this problem.
Tom Benjamin has more than 30 years of experience in environmental design and sustainability. His site planning work emphasizes low cost, low maintenance landscape solutions for large scale institutions to small community gardens. His work often encompasses natural stormwater filtration systems. He has received many awards for his innovations and currently teaches at the University of Massachusetts. He is a principal of Wellnesscaapes of Northampton.
A guest fee of $5 per person is requested to help defray costs of this program. Light refreshments will be available.