Rain Gardens

Overview

In 1996, Maplewood installed it's first rain garden to help manage stormwater. Today the city has over 700 home rain gardens and over 60 rain gardens on city land. A rain garden is a shallow depression that collects rain water and allows it to infiltrate. It's planted with plants that can tolerate a wide range of soil moisture.

Maplewood's Rain Garden Program

The city encourages the use of rain gardens on both public and private lands.

• Installing a rain garden on your own. Maplewood encourages residents that are not on street reconstruction projects to consider installing a rain garden on their own. Most yards have room for a rain garden that can collect roof runoff. Some residents are also able to collect driveway runoff or runoff from a slope. Get information on creating your own rain garden.
• Rain gardens for developments and businesses. Maplewood encourages developers and businesses to consider rain gardens when determining how best to manage runoff from their site. Several developers and businesses have created beautiful rain gardens in our community. Some favorites are:
  • Legacy Village Rain Gardens - Median along Legacy Parkway (west of Kennard)
  • Maplewood Mall - East entrance and ring of rain gardens around the mall
  • Somerhill Apartments - Southwest corner of Harvester and Ferndale
• Rain gardens on Maplewood street reconstruction projects. When people talk about Maplewood rain gardens, they are usually talking about the gardens that were created as part of street reconstruction projects. Since 1996, the city has installed over 700 boulevard rain gardens and over 60 city rain gardens as part of street reconstruction projects.

Rain Garden Designs

From formal to wild, from shrubs to perennials, there are many options for rain garden designs and plants. Get information on rain garden designs.