Maintaining Rain Gardens

1. Maintaining Rain-Gardens
Lessons Learned from the
Kansas State University
Stormwater Management Project
Lee R. Skabelund, Kansas State University
Landscape Architecture / Regional & Community Planning
Principal Investigator / Project Manager
Konza Prairie near Manhattan, KS
Flint Hills Ecoregion

2. Urban Stormwater Concerns
Throughout Kansas stormwater is typically
sent quickly away from developed areas
and straight-piped into drainageways,
streams, rivers, and ponds.
As a result of these and other land-use
practices, ecosystems are being severely
degraded.
Large amounts of water are also sprayed on
lawns, gardens, and other landscapes.
Often, very little water replenishes Big Blue River
underground water reserves. Campus Creek
Watershed
What can we do to correct these
bad habits?
Wildcat Creek
First, we must recognize
the connections! Kansas River

3. Interweaving Art and Science
K-State’s International Student Center Rain-Garden
The KSU ISC Rain-Garden was constructed
by faculty, students and staff in Spring 2007.
In Fall 2007 and Spring 2008 Lee Skabelund
collaborated with Art students and faculty to
create rain-bowls for the ISC Rain-Garden.

4. ISC Rain-Garden Project
5/22/09
• This collaborative design-build project engaged students,
faculty, staff, and professionals in the task of considering
ecologically sound ways to treat stormwater that falls on
the Kansas State University (KSU) campus. In the
process, two specific goals were achieved:
1) Designed and created a rain-garden along a selected
area of Campus Creek to reduce stormwater run-off and
improve water quality.
2) Demonstrated specific ways to address urban
stormwater runoff to KSU administrators, staff, faculty,
students, and visitors.

5. Educational Intent of the Project
5/22/09
Engaging KSU administrators, staff, faculty,
students, and local planning/design professionals is
deemed essential if substantive changes in
stormwater management are to occur on campus
and in the larger community.
This collaborative design/build demonstration
project involved key stakeholders at KSU and other
communities, raising their awareness of best
practices, testing design ideas on the ground, and
engaging those who influence stormwater
management at KSU and beyond.

6. Rain-Garden Maintenance:
Key Ideas to Remember:
1) Rain-Gardens need to be maintained (there is no free
lunch when it comes to maintaining gardens and created or
disrupted landscapes).
2) Weeding is essential (although a good hardwood mulch
can reduce the number of weeds and make weeding easier).
Fertilizing is not needed if you use plants adapted to the
region and site. Pruning is rarely needed, though you will
likely want to clip back perennials before spring (you may
wish to transplant and water in seedlings and/or remove more
aggressive perennials if they begin to dominate your garden).
3) Watering during the first growing season is vital (try to
strike a balance between providing too much and too little
water). If you choose plants well-adapted to your eco-
region and specific site, no watering should be needed
once the plants are established. Check for exposed soil and
erosion, and add an organic weed-free mulch. If too much
sediment is flowing into the garden find the source and
stabilize the area (if needed, you may need to reduce the
volume or intensity of stormwater flowing into the garden).
4) Draw upon the experience of others, including folks on
the east coast, mid-west, Rocky Mountains & west coast.

7. Bioregion/Landscape
Site
Community Context

8. Integrate Your Rain-Garden
into your eco-region and site
Key Ideas to Remember:
1) Create a rain-garden that makes sense for your site (size of
property, structures and impermeable surfaces; location; soil and
sun/shade conditions; etc.) and your maintenance capabilities.
2) Learn what the “weeds” and invasive species are in your area
and prepare to remove them from your garden as soon as possible.
3) Choose plants that can handle water and drought. In Kansas
our native prairie species are typically best and many these perennial
plants of these can be obtained from nurseries such as Kaw River
Restoration Nurseries in Lawrence (http://www.appliedeco.com/krrn/)
and the Prairie & Wetland Center (http://www.critsite.com/).
For more native plant nursery/supplier options refer to:
http://www.kansasnativeplantsociety.org/plant_resources.htm
4) Learn from others and from your own experiences (think big,
think small; be practical, be ambitious, be creative; know your budget
and institutional capacity; have a lot of fun working with soil, water and
plants; save water and energy; learn a bunch along the way).

9. Learning from Precedents:
water-sensitive site
planning/design project
DOE-Robb Williamson photo
DOE-Robb Williamson photo
Excerpted remarks by David W. Orr, Director of Oberlin's
Environmental Studies Program, in 1999.
“Three years ago we began the effort to design a building for
the Environmental Studies Program. We intended to create
not just a place for classes but rather a building that would
help to redefine the relationship between humankind and the
environment—one that would expand our sense of ecological
possibilities. We began by asking:
Is it possible—even in Ohio—to power buildings by
current sunlight?
Is it possible to create buildings that
purify their own wastewater?
Is it possible to build without compromising human and
environmental heath somewhere else or at some later time?”
Sources: NASA (unlabled photos); Oberlin College (text & David Orr photo)
http://www.nrel.gov/buildings/highperformance/oberlin_gallery.html
http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy03osti/31516.pdf

10. Water-sensitive site Roof water is
planning/design project collected in carved
ASLA 2004 award winner
stone basins, then
drains into a grated
channel before
cascading over a
five-foot stone-faced
retaining wall. The
learning lab and
Design by Jones & Jones – Planners,
auditorium buildings Architects & Landscape Architects
expand onto the
courtyard, which is
paved with stone,
subtly-colored
sandblasted
concrete, and tile
artifacts (historically
manufactured in the
watershed).
Surrounding forest
and meadows are
pulled into the
courtyard and onto
building roofs.
Cedar River Watershed Education Center - Seattle, WA Source: www.asla.org

11. Water-sensitive site
A new road reveals
planning/design project previously hidden
Andropogon Associates, Ltd. landscapes.
A new parking lot
integrates multiple
functions: parking,
water collection, and
horticultural display.
The lot includes an
impervious asphalt
roadway, with
permeable asphalt
parking bays off to
the sides. A
stormwater recharge
bed lies under the
entire lot. When it
rains, water rapidly
disappears through
the permeable paving
and into the
underground basin
where it infiltrates
Morris Arboretum into the ground.
Source: www.asla.org

12. Water-sensitive site planning/design project
Coffee Creek, Chesterton, Indiana
Sources: www.coffeecreekwc.org/pages/showgallery_visitor.asp (photos)
www.coffeecreekcenter.com/ (text)
Stream
Employing Environmental Engineering
Restoration of the Coffee Creek corridor is being implemented with guidance from
biologists who understand the local & regional landscape. Level spreaders and
vegetation infiltrate water into the soil. The project employs civil engineering without
traditional expensive and destructive stormwater drainage systems – and provides a
wide range of shared community open space within a 167-acre preserve.
Level Spreader
slows runoff
Wetland Cell
Prairie treats sewage
Greenroof
Restoring Native Ecosystems and Habitats
“Unbuilt areas are being restored to a pre-settlement landscape to minimize soil erosion and
rebuild soil integrity, re-establish native plant & animal communities and encourage
increased bio-diversity.”

13. Q: How do we restore hydrological processes in urban settings?
Fall 2004 KSU-LAR
Stormwater
Management
Charrette

14. Instructive Stormwater
Management BMPs in the Region
Jackson Street Bioretention Areas,
Topeka, KS
Discovery Center,
Living Machine &
Created Wetland
Kansas City, MO
Mize Lake Bioretention Cell and
Created Wetland, Lenexa, KS

15. Stormwater Management Charrette
at Kansas State University
Oct. 25-27, 2006
Three Guest Speakers/Reviewers
and Links to KSU Classes
Integrated Teams and
Many Design Ideas…
Ten Teams; Multiple Sites;
Reviews & Open House

16. Potential Stormwater Management Retrofits near KSU’s Derby Dining Complex
Moore Hall/Claflin Rd.
ISC/Residence
Bioretention Area (Spring ’09?)
Hall Raingardens,
Amphitheater &
Pathways
(Fall 2009 charrette;
Summer 2010
implementation?)
Derby
Haymaker &
International Green
Ford Hall
Roof *
Student Center Bioretention
Raingarden Gardens
(Spring 2007) (Spring ’09?)
* Collaborative
Project with BNIM
and other firms West & Ford Hall Parking Retrofit
(Fall 2007 Studio Project; (Summer ’09 construction?)
includes designing Green
Roofs for Seaton Hall and
other buildings at KSU;
location and construction
of a demonstration green Boyd Hall/Old Claflin Rd.
roof date TBD)
Raingarden
(Fall ’08 / Spring ’09 implementation?)

17. Restoring Hydrologic Processes along Campus Creek
The KSU International Student Center Design/Build
Rain-Garden Demonstration Project
Project inspired by
KSU-LAR Stormwater
Management Charrette

18. Restoring Hydrologic Processes along Campus Creek
The KSU International Student Center Design/Build
Rain-Garden Demonstration Project
Taiwan Wing
Korean Room
Planting Plan (Cary Thomsen, KSU-MLA) Planting & Setting Level-Spreader (4/28/07)
In-process rain-garden photos taken on 5/16/07, 6/2/07, 6/22/07, and 7/16/07.

19. Restoring Hydrologic Processes along Campus Creek
The KSU International Student Center Design/Build
Rain-Garden Demonstration Project
ISC Staff: Photo taken April 23, 2007

20. The KSU-ISC Rain-Garden
Sep. 7, 2007 photo Rain-Garden Sign Sep. 26, 2007 photos

21. The KSU-ISC Rain-Garden
Campus Creek
10/2/07
October 2, 2007 - photos taken after a 1.2-inch storm event (approximate).

22. The KSU International Student Center Rain-Garden Plant List
Proposed plants for basins (Feb 2007)
Proposed plants for fringe areas (Feb 2007)
ISC Rain-
Garden Plants
(Aug-Sep ’07)
10/29/07

23. Lessons Learned
Results: participants and visitors recognize the value of
water and its role in sustaining developed landscapes and
natural ecosystems by considering ways they can harness
rainwater for irrigation and ecological renewal.
Assessment:
Students learned from one another, faculty, and
professionals as they collaborated in vertical design teams;
presented design ideas to administrators, professionals,
faculty & peers; and as they helped implement design ideas
at KSU’s International Student Center. They are also
involved in maintenance of the ISC Rain-Garden.
12/24/08 5/1/09
Note the water still in the rain-gutter, well after
water soaked into heavy clay rain-garden soils 9/17/07

24. KSU Green Roof Design – Fall 2007
Green roof designs were
proposed for a handful of
buildings on the K-State
Campus in Manhattan,
Kansas.
Landscape Architecture
students visited four Project Sites
constructed green roofs
in Kansas City, Missouri; Derby Dining
reviewed and discussed Complex
the literature related to
green roof design,
construction and Chalmers &
management; and then Ackert Halls
selected one or more
Seaton Hall (3)
rooftops on which to
design a green roof. K-State
They spent three weeks Union
asking: What if? What
might be? If here, how?
Three-Week Green Roof Design Project, KSU-LARCP Specialization Studio – Prof. Lee R. Skabelund; Designers – 12 LAR Students.

25. KSU Green Roof Design – Fall 2007
The Derby green roof
would serve as park-
like space for walking,
reading and studying,
conversing and eating,
and resting, relaxing
and sunbathing.
Three-Week Green Roof Design Project, KSU-LARCP Specialization Studio –
Prof. Lee R. Skabelund; Designers – Cole Giesler & Katie Sobcynski.

26. KSU Green Roof Design – Fall 2007
These green roofs would serve primarily as a research laboratories to study the value of
living roofs for energy savings and stormwater management.
Three-Week Green Roof Design Project, KSU-LARCP Specialization Studio – Prof. Lee R. Skabelund; Designers – Kris Coen & Daniel Robben.

27. KSU Green Roof Design – Fall 2007
This green roof would
serve as a research
laboratory, outdoor
reading room, and
social gathering space.
Three-Week Green Roof Design Project, KSU-LARCP Specialization Studio – Prof. Lee R. Skabelund; Designers - Anthony Fox & Chris Morton.

28. KSU Green Roof Design – Fall 2007
These green roofs would offer research laboratories and a room with a view.
Three-Week Green Roof Design Project, KSU-LARCP Specialization Studio – Prof. Lee R. Skabelund; Designers - Anthony Fox & Chris Morton.

29. KSU Green Roof Design – Fall 2007
The Union green roof
would serve as a space
for small social and
educational gatherings
and for catching a
breath of fresh air.
Three-Week Green Roof Design Project, KSU-LARCP Specialization Studio – Prof. Lee R. Skabelund; Designer – Lindsey Scheuneman.

30. Rossville Rain-Garden – Spring 2008
Working with Prof. Skabelund, Brett Tagtmeyer & Aarthi Padmanabahn (LAR)
designed and helped residents lay out the Rossville Rain-Garden.
10/2/08

31. Current Projects & Next Steps
During Spring 2008 interdisciplinary
student teams developed proposals
for implementing the first green roof
in the Flint Hills Eco-region.
Green roof & rain-garden designs
are currently being implemented in 5/22/09
Manhattan, Kansas.
Our goal is to explore community-and-
landscape-appropriate ways to address
urban stormwater runoff in many
Kansas communities.
The WaterLINK program has played a
pivotal role in allowing us to design and
implement projects by working across
disciplines to address stormwater
management concerns in the region.
Sunset Zoo Prairie & Rain-Garden Design >
Contributors: Emily King, Lee Adams, Chris Enroth,
and Andrew Schaap

32. Seaton Hall Green Roof: The first test…
Seaton Green Roof
exposed upper rooftop
Seaton Hall
Details prepared by Michael Knapp & Mark Neibling,
with guidance from professors Todd Gabbard,
Lee Skabelund, KSU Facilities, Greg Pfau (BNIM),
and others. Structural calculations by Jessica Wiles
and Dr. Sutton Stephens (Arch. Engineering).
Monitoring support from Stacy Hutchinson (BAE)
and Mary Knapp (Agronomy and KSU Climatologist).
Materials and labor donated by KSU-Facilities,
Derbigum, Danker Roofing & American Hydrotech.
Upper breezeway roof – 300 sf; can hold ~64 lbs/sf
Low roofs to east & west – each ~350 sf; can hold ~51 lbs/sf

33. KSU Seaton Hall Green Roof
Demonstration & Research Project
10/3/08
5/18/09
5/19/09
3/25/09 3/30/09 5/21/09

34. Interweaving Art and Science
K-State’s International Student Center Rain-Garden
10/3/08
lskab@ksu.edu