Or do you want to create a garden that attracts pollinators andhelps keep pollutants out of local streams?
You may want to create a rain garden.
What Is a Rain Garden?
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Typically, after a rain event, water runs into storm drains which empty directly into nearby waterways.
Rain gardens can improve water quality because they filter this runoff.
Check with your local university Extension service (find yourshere) for upcoming events.
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It can grow up to 8 feet tall and has arching branches and showy white flowers in early summer.
Bees and butterflies like this perennial, and it can spread rapidly as a groundcover.
Coneflower
Coneflower has long-lasting purple-lavender flowers with domed centers.
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Deadhead when the blooms fade to keep the flowers coming all summer long.
It grows up to 4 feet tall and looks best when planted in masses.
Its also long-lived and has few pests.
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Its a food source for butterflies and other pollinators, mammals, birds, and bees.
Summersweet
This shrub reaches 2 to 3 feet tall and loves moist soil.
Summersweet tolerates sun but prefers part shade.
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The sweetly-fragrant white flowers attract bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds.
Inkberry
This rounded evergreen shrub is part of the holly family.
Inkberry grows 5 to 10 feet tall and suckers to form colonies.
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Its tiny white springtime flowers, which attract bees and butterflies, become pretty black berries.
Both male and female plants are necessary for the shrub to produce berries.
Many types of pollinators and birds love this plant.
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Buttonbush reaches heights of about 12 feet tall and spreads about 8 feet wide.
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Credit: Getty/Diane Labombarbe
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