Author Archives: raingardenuiuc

By Carl Carman, Guest Blogger/Ex-officio RORG Team collaborator/Volunteer The Red Oak Rain Garden (RORG) team planted approximately 9,000 plants and recorded the species, number, and geospatial location of each plant. Given the plethora of plants, the team thought it might be cool to estimate the environmental impact of the garden in the context of terrestrialContinueContinue reading “Estimating Impact: Carbon Sequestration”

by Layne Knoche, Landscape Designer Last fall, the RORG team and nearly 100 volunteers successfully installed about 9,000 native plants at the rain garden. While this monumental feat sounds like a lot, it might not look like a lot to many folks accustomed to HGTV quick transformations. That is, it might not look like muchContinueContinue reading “When Will RORG Look Like an HGTV Garden?”

by Eliana Brown, RORG Director For a rain garden, every day is Earth Day. But, this year’s Earth Day is special – it’s the 50th Anniversary. Thirty years ago people poured onto the quad for the 20th Anniversary event. At the time, I was in college studying General Engineering and Marketing. The excitement around thatContinueContinue reading “Earth Day 2020 is Wild”

From the (home office) desk of Layne Knoche, landscape designer: I first met Henry Eilers at an Extension Master Gardener event in Montgomery County, Illinois in spring 2019. I’d been asked to give a talk about the integration of natives in the home landscape and in rain gardens and I was elated to see suchContinueContinue reading “Inspiring People: Horticulturalist Henry Eilers”

AND WE HAVE A WINNER! FINAL BRACKET RESULTS UPDATE (4/9/20): ROUND 3 RESULTS UPDATE (4/9/20): ROUND 2 RESULTS UPDATE (4/1/20): ROUND 1 RESULTS ORIGINAL MULCH MADNESS BRACKET Hold on to your gardening hats, sports fans! The NCAA basketball tournament may have had to cancel, but the RORG Team’s got you. We proudly announce our version:ContinueContinue reading “MULCH MADNESS 2020: If you miss your basketball bracket, root for your favorite flowers instead”

by Layne Knoche, RORG Landscape Designer Winter break is here has come and gone and our team finally has some time to catch up on this blog. This post covers September 30th – October 4th: the final week of the plant installation. You can catch up with week 1 and week 2 to make sureContinueContinue reading “Planting the Red Oak Rain Garden: Week 3”

by Layne Knoche, RORG Landscape Designer Winter break is here and our team finally has some time to catch up on this blog. This post continues where Planting: Week 1 leaves off with September 24th – 27th. Tuesday, September 24: Drilling holes. Lots of holes. After spending a long weekend at home to refresh myContinueContinue reading “Planting the Red Oak Rain Garden: Week 2”

by Layne Knoche, RORG Landscape Designer Winter break is here and our team finally has some time to catch up on this blog. This post covers September 15th – 20th. Sunday, September 15: Sunday was a day of last-minute prepping before the big day. Eliana wrote about it at the time; I’m going to addContinueContinue reading “Planting the Red Oak Rain Garden: Week 1”

by Eliana Brown, RORG Team Leader This post covers September 21st – 23rd. SAT, SEP 21: Happy to report that thanks to all the wonderful volunteers last week, we were able to get two-thirds of the garden planted. Pretty great! This does mean that one-third of the plants remain in the greenhouse and need wateringContinueContinue reading “Weekend update…rain!”

by the RORG Team This post covers September 12th – 16th. Disclaimer: the team has been working LONG consecutive days. Planting started September 16th and we are very excited about it. While you’ll read a little about planting here, stay tuned for posts that feature planting in more detail in the next few days! ButContinueContinue reading “A Tense Moment… and Dogs”