Into each life, some rain must fall | Home And Garden | fredericknewspost.com

2022-10-08 16:00:37 By : Ms. Emma WEI

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Thanks to Senator (former mayor) Ron Young and others, Carroll Creek in Frederick City was turned into Carroll Creek Linear Park several years ago. It features several locks to help control the rush of water and is a popular place for many fetes during the year.

Thanks to Sen. (former mayor) Ron Young and others, Carroll Creek in Frederick City was turned into Carroll Creek Linear Park several years ago. It features several locks to help control the rush of water and is a popular place for many fetes during the year.

You can connect flexible tubing to your downspout and put the tubing underground or on the soil surface to direct runoff into garden areas rather than on impermeable surfaces such as driveways, sidewalks and streets.

Stormwater runoff can fill ditches and spill over into streets, washing away topsoil, sweeping debris and contaminants into the storm system on its way to the bay and making driving dangerous.

You can connect flexible tubing to your downspout and put the tubing underground or on the soil surface to direct runoff into garden areas rather than on impermeable surfaces such as driveways, sidewalks and streets.

Heavy rains may accumulate in any ground depressions in your yard. Grass berms or plantings of perennials that tolerate occasional “wet feet” may help the water to be filtered through into the soil.

Thanks to Senator (former mayor) Ron Young and others, Carroll Creek in Frederick City was turned into Carroll Creek Linear Park several years ago. It features several locks to help control the rush of water and is a popular place for many fetes during the year.

Thanks to Sen. (former mayor) Ron Young and others, Carroll Creek in Frederick City was turned into Carroll Creek Linear Park several years ago. It features several locks to help control the rush of water and is a popular place for many fetes during the year.

You can connect flexible tubing to your downspout and put the tubing underground or on the soil surface to direct runoff into garden areas rather than on impermeable surfaces such as driveways, sidewalks and streets.

Stormwater runoff can fill ditches and spill over into streets, washing away topsoil, sweeping debris and contaminants into the storm system on its way to the bay and making driving dangerous.

You can connect flexible tubing to your downspout and put the tubing underground or on the soil surface to direct runoff into garden areas rather than on impermeable surfaces such as driveways, sidewalks and streets.

Heavy rains may accumulate in any ground depressions in your yard. Grass berms or plantings of perennials that tolerate occasional “wet feet” may help the water to be filtered through into the soil.

With fall finally here, we’ll probably have lots more rain than we’ve had this past summer. You may think that because water gushes out of the bottom of those downspouts in heavy rains, that everything is under control. But does the excess flood your driveway and sidewalks? Do you have a low-lying lawn or garden area that stays soggy after a heavy rain? Things may be more out of control than you realize.

While the county and city governments have done a lot to mitigate storm water, everywhere from Carroll Creek to school and business parking lots to neighborhood streets and sidewalks in various towns in the county, you may want to look into ways of better managing the water that gushes down, around and onto your individual property. (We will not address the problems of water in the basement. You may need a professional to deal with this kind of issue.)

When rains fall on our roofs, our gardens, our yards, our driveways, sidewalks and streets, the runoff carries a mixture of materials that eventually dump into the Chesapeake Bay. This runoff clouds the bay water, making it hard for aquatic plants, fish, and other organisms to survive. Run-off also sweeps along anything else in its path: debris, such as plastic bags, six-pack rings, bottles, pet waste, pesticides, motor oils, and other trash. In the bay, they further “choke, suffocate, and disable aquatic life” from fish and turtles, to ducks and birds, according to the University of Maryland’s Maryland Cooperative Extension Fact Sheet.

You have several options, all of which encompass methods to divert the runoff from those impermeable surfaces into nearby lawn or gardens, whether it’s through flexible tubing attached to a downspout, a downspout directed into rain barrels, rain directed into a rain garden, or a berm of native grasses and perennials along driveways, parking lots, or other places.

One way to divert such drainage is use flexible tubing, which can be slipped over the end of the downspout. You can either bury the tube below ground level or leave it on the surface and direct it to where you want the water to empty out. At our house, downspouts on every corner with flexible tubing divert water away from the driveway, sidewalks, and foundation of the house and into the surrounding garden areas.

Besides the flexible tubing connected to your downspout, another option to divert stormwater is to use one or more rain barrels, installed at downspouts that have been routed directly into the barrel. The barrels are usually placed a few inches to a foot or so above ground level, to make it easier to reach the spigot at the bottom of the barrel when watering lawn or garden areas.

If you have a low-lying area where rain tends to puddle, consider creating a rain garden. The nature of this low-lying area will determine what sort of plants you put in — is it always wet, a sort of bog? Or only wet when it rains? You may need a professional to help you determine the best way to develop the area, whether by putting in French drains or by just planting native perennials.

Still another method of storm water management is to create filter strips of native grasses or plants along the edges of the roadway. “They trap the pollutants stormwater picks up as it flows across driveways and streets,” the EPA states on its website.

Finally, the UMD Cooperative Extension Fact Sheet also points out that controlling storm water run-off helps prevent erosion and helps save the topsoil in your yard. Erosion can happen when you don’t have enough vegetative cover on the ground, or the soil is poor/has been overworked; or you are doing intensive gardening in places where the ground is sloped. Carefully select grasses, perennials, shrubs and trees that are “right for the site.” University of Maryland’s Home and Garden Information Center gives you links to numerous articles and resources about managing stormwater, making stormwater ponds, handling water run-off, selecting appropriate plants for rain gardens or berms and other topics.

Frederick County Master Gardeners Extension Office is open to the public. You can also find gardening information and advice online:

• University of MD Extension Home & Garden Information Center, https://extension.umd.edu/programs/environmentnatural-resources/program-areas/home-and-garden-information-center;

• Frederick County Master Gardeners Publications, http://extension.umd.edu/locations/frederick-county/home-gardening;

• Facebook, http://www.facebook.com/mastergardenersfrederickcountymaryland;

• or call us at 301-600-1596.

The University of Maryland is an Equal Opportunity Employer and provides Equal Access to Pro-grams. La Universidad de Maryland es una institución con Igualdad de Oportunidades de Empleo y con Igualdad de Acceso a Programas.

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