A growing number of Anchorage homeowners are taking advantage of an incentive to create a rain garden and be reimbursed for a big chunk of the cost.
"It really keeps us occupied, and it's a lot of fun," said Veronica Levin, who recently built a rain garden. "We really enjoy watching things grow."
She and her husband qualified for the Anchorage Rain Garden Reimbursement Program, which provides guidance and grant money at a 50% reimbursement (up to $750) to residents and property owners who install rain gardens.
The Levins re-routed their gutters to transfer runoff to a small flower garden in their yard. "I really liked the idea of using the runoff water that had been collecting near the foundation of our house," said Veronica Levin.
Rain gardens in the Municipality have been catching on, over the past few years.
Here's how they work: rain water is routed to the garden and filtered by the plants and soils in the garden. Rain gardens use a combination of soils and water-tolerant native plants to catch and hold runoff. The soils and plants then naturally filter out pollutants found in rain and runoff helping to protect groundwater, streams and lakes.
"This program is as much about improving storm water as it is about educating and encouraging environmental stewardship in our community," said Sherman. "We want people to start taking care of the runoff and water pollution that we all live underneath."
Sherman meets with homeowners to survey their property, locate their sources of runoff, as well as identify drainage problems and patterns on their property. They then come to an agreement on where the homeowner will build the rain garden and how it would be able to work.
"You want to clean all the runoff you create," said Sherman. "Clean water is an invaluable resource."
But for the Levins, while their rain garden is helping contribute to cleaner water in their neighborhood, it has become one of their favorite pastimes.
"This is like our little sanctuary," said Levin as she stood in her front yard admiring her rain garden. "But it's kind of backbreaking work because there's a lot of weeding you have to do."
