We haven't had much rain lately, but with the slight chance of a few severe storms over the next few days, we could experience some heavy downpours. Some nutrients are abundant in soil, like nitrogen and phosphorus. Unfortunately, once these get washed into our waterways, they can become pollutants. That's where a rain garden comes in. It can help reduce or even stop nutrients from reaching our waterways by channeling runoff into the center of the garden. The water can soak into the ground before it would otherwise flow over saturated soils, down a storm drain, and into a stream or river.

Mike Brown, assistant manager at Meadows Farms Nursery, says, usually with rain gardens or if you're doing erosion prevention, it's usually on a hillside where you want plants with a strong root system. Something that's going to grip onto the soil and it's where it prevents runoff basically. People use a lot of ground covers and ivy, pachysandra, even liriope. You can go with another route, you can go with a few different bushes and shrubs too."

If you want to design your own rain garden,

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