Harford County has finished work on an environmentally-friendly rain garden. The project comes as part of the county’s first Green Infrastructure Plan.

Harford County recently completed a rain garden in partnership with the Town of Bel Air, Bel Air Farmers’ Market, Harford Count Master Gardeners, and local businesses. Rain gardens are unpaved surface areas that sit lower into the earth, allowing for higher water retention. Rain gardens are popular as an environmentally friendly way to remove pollutants from stormwater runoff before they reach water sources. The rain garden recently completed in Bel Air comes as part of Harford County’s first Green Infrastructure Plan, that facilitates the county’s environmental stewardship goals.

From the press release:

The project also creates a natural, aesthetically appealing garden filled with colorful plants and flowers that provide food and habitat for birds, butterflies and other pollinators. The garden will be seen by many people, including visitors to the Bel Air Farmers Market, which operates in the parking lot on Saturdays in April through December, and a number of other events.

The garden is filled with colorful flowers showcasing pink, purple and yellow tones including coreopsis, iris, New England aster, liatris spictata, woolgrass, goldenrod and coneflower and native shrubs such as redtwig dogwoods, winterberry holly and dwarf clethra. Next year, once the flowers are more established, they will bloom from spring through fall.

Investments in environmentally friendly stormwater projects increase the resilience of our communities. Besides filtering the stormwater, the garden will slow and cool the runoff before it goes into the drains, reducing risks that come with flash floods, excess pollutants and algae blooms.

For more information, visit the rain garden’s page.