Stormwater is no match for these students!

For the second year in a row, Kevin Green, South River Federation Board member and Master Watershed Steward, has organized an Earth Day volunteer project for 11^th graders at the Key School.  The Hillsmere Community has a beautiful rain garden within walking distance from the school.  To keep the garden looking attractive, Kevin recruited a class of enthusiastic volunteers to help him do maintenance work on the garden.   The students pulled weeds, mulched, and placed wood chips on the walking path through the gardens all while having loads of fun of course!

Kevin did more than just organize the maintenance work; he helped to get the project started back in 2010.  Along with Master Watershed Stewards Jennie Gundersen and Chris Moore, the team combined their forces to build this rain garden for their Watershed Steward Capstone Project.  With funding from the Chesapeake Bay Trust, South River Federation, Unity Gardens, and the Hillsmere Community, two rain gardens were built into the existing contour of the landscape near the Hillsmere community pool.  These were no ordinary gardens!  The soil was amended to increase infiltration and check dams were installed to slow the stormwater.  Volunteers planted 1,000 plants when it was initially put in and Kevin continues to use Key School volunteer to replace any plants that have perished.  All this work sure did pay off!  The rain gardens can capture and filter 160,000 gallons of stormwater!  That is as much as 3,200 rain barrels!

Needless to say, we are looking forward to going back to the Hillsmere gardens with the Key School next spring!

Enjoy pictures of the Key School students working the gardens from the past two years: