When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade. Or in the case of residents of Sydney, Nova Scotia, when life gives you 191 days of rain in an average year, you make rain gardens.
Part of an initiative run by the Atlantic Coastal Action Program (ACAP) Cape Breton, the rain gardens are an important way of mitigating the damage done by water run-off and creating awareness.
“Around here, there’s infrastructure to transport stormwater. There are drains and things to get it off the road and away. But there’s no treatment of it. Whatever goes in goes to the ocean. That was our concern.”
Essentially a rain garden is a depression (basically a small valley) built into the garden, ideally between the water source and its destination – also avoiding near any foundations and a septic tank – which will try to prevent as much of the run-off as possible.
To date, ACAP Cape Breton has established rain gardens on 12 properties, but also aims to educate people and make them more aware of they are doing with their stormwater.
Read more about how ACAP Cape Breton is trying to help the people of Sydney, Nova Scotia deal with their daily deluge of rain and stormwater in Canadian Wildlife magazine, May + June 2015 edition.