Author Archives: raingardenuiuc

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 thatContinue 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 suchContinue 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:Continue 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 sureContinue 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 myContinue 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 addContinue 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 wateringContinue 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! ButContinue reading “A Tense Moment… and Dogs”

by Eliana Brown, Project Leader Tomorrow is a big day for us. Phase II of our project begins and the first plants go in! The RORG team has been working hard to prepare – especially Layne Knoche, who is managing the plant installation. Students in several university classes and nearby residence halls and community memberContinue reading “Almost planting day”

by Tony Heath, Project Engineer This post covers Wednesday, September 11th. Howdy! With only 3 days of construction left before planting, things are really heating up at the rain garden! There were two crews working at the garden today. While Wayne and Tristan from Grounds spent the day doing some final clean-up of the site including clearingContinue reading “Bridge footings”