Bright and early Monday morning Phyllis Duffy of Exeter’s Department of Public Works assembled an energetic group of graduating seniors from Exeter High School to install a rain garden. With the design and direction of Ironwood, the garden is now in situ to help capture significant flows of rainwater that pour down the hill of Chestnut Street into the Exeter Library parking lot. The Founder’s Park Rain Garden takes this stormwater collected from impervious surfaces of the built environment and returns it to the natural water cycle where it can be cleansed and added back to the groundwater. The Rain Garden collects the initial storm surge that flows down the street and used to travel unintercepted directly into The Exeter River. With its sandy soil mix, the Founder’s Park Rain Garden will also catch and treat subsequent rain water flows by allowing the water to filter quickly.
This demonstration rain garden is a collaborative project with the Town of Exeter, Seacoast Farms who supplied the compost, and Stonepost Perennials, Stratham Circle Nursery and Churchill’s Garden Center who donated many of the plants. For more coverage of this rain garden please go the Town of Exeter’s website. Hope you will check out the video, very instructive and courtesy of one of the students!