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certain types of
businesses. As cited in the adopted ordinance, “The purpose of
this district is to provide freestanding retail, commercial and
small office buildings for neighborhoods and/or communities in
areas directly accessible by an arterial street.” Among the
permitted uses, are “restaurants.” - the objective being to
stimulate interest by family-oriented food establishments. It
appears to have succeeded. Only months after passage, the likes of
Applebees and Friendly’s are showing interest in that Free
Standing Building district. So as usual “under the hood,”
there’s a lot of work being done. The result is a strong
business community responsive to the needs of the residents, and
sensitive to Township’s objective of making Aston a better place
to call home.
Gardening
With a Purpose
Rain gardens are an
interesting twist on environmental landscaping that can solve
water retention problems while beautifying your yard. We all have
those pesky little spots in the yard that become a problem when
rainfall exceeds the norm. The result is often a puddle or a huge plot of soggy grass.
One cure is
a rain garden and here’s the scoop.
What is it…A rain garden is an attractive
landscaping feature planted with perennial native plants. It is a
bowl-shaped or saucer-shaped garden, designed to absorb stormwater
run-off from impervious surfaces such as roofs and parking lots.
Why…..
Planting
a rain garden may seem like a small thing, but if you calculate
the amount of rain that runs off your roof, you would be very
surprised. That rain is supposed to soak into the ground, but
instead heads down the street to the storm drain, carrying
pollution with it. Keeping rain where it falls, by putting it into
a beautiful rain garden, is a natural solution. Plants native to
Pennsylvania are the most suitable, but if your budget is tight or
the plants are not readily available, you may be able use some
existing plants from your yard and add native species later. Rain
gardens don't require much space, can be fit into oddball shapes,
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and
can be readily added to existing landscapes. They look nice, and
anyone can make a rain garden - including you!
How…..
A rain
garden is one type of “bio-retention”—a system of pond area,
soil, plants and mulch that will retain water and soak it up
instead of letting it run off of your property (even though your
“pond” will be dry most of the time). So the most basic
things are the “pond,” or depression into which water will
flow, and the soils that will absorb the water. Note the direction
of runoff and low spots in your yard where water collects. If you
are not sure where these are, and it's not raining, find them by
running hose water on the ground. If these spots are away and
downhill from your building foundations, they will be good places
for your rain garden. If you have many low spots, you can choose
those that are closest to the downspouts from your roof or nearest
to a paved driveway. Drainage is important! Your rain
garden needs to be able to absorb the water coming off your roof
and driveway. In some sections of Delaware County, soils tend to
be predominantly sand or clay. Sandy soils drain well, while clay
soils may become waterlogged. If your soil is sandy, you may be
able to simply loosen the soil and improve it with some compost to
prepare your rain garden for planting. If your soil is clay, you
will have more work to do. Even light clay soils may create very
soggy problems if a lot of rain is directed to the rain garden.
Soil removal and replacement are often needed if your soil is
clay. The recommended soil replacement mix is 50-60% sand,
20-30% topsoil, and 20-30% compost. Be
sure no clay is in your replacement soil. Test your
drainage! You can test your soil’s infiltration rate by
digging a hole 8 inches wide and 8 inches deep. Pour a bucket of
water into it and see how long it takes to sink in. The water
needs to go down an inch per hour. If it takes longer than that,
you will need to do additional site preparation to improve
infiltration.
When
you prepare the garden for planting, you must create a dip in the
middle where water will collect as it
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sinks
into the soil. There are various zones in a rain garden (very wet,
wet to dry, and dry) and different kinds of plants will thrive at
different zones. You may also adjust the depth of the depression
to the infiltration rate. The standard depth for the ponding area
is six inches. If you have very poor drainage in your existing
soils, and your garden preparations still leave you with slow
absorption rates, make your depression shallower to reduce the
water that gets trapped there. If your soil sucks up water, make
your garden deeper to increase its storage capacity. It’s
generally best to keep the bottom of your rain garden’s
depression flat; saucer-shaped rather than bowl shaped. That way,
the rainwater will always spread out as much as possible. To be
certain that your rain garden will function properly, simply
replace the soil with the recommended rain garden mix mentioned
above. Design it…You can’t have a rain garden
that is too large. However, any size garden will make a
difference, even a small one. The ideal situation is to
create a garden that will absorb all the rain that would otherwise
flow away from your yard. To calculate the most useful size of a
rain garden, (1) figure out what kind of soil you have, and (2)
estimate the area from which your garden will get rain. (Multiply
width by length of your rooftop, to get square feet. Add the
square feet of paved areas. Remember, though, that different parts
of your roof drain to different downspouts—you want to estimate
only the square footage that will drain into your rain garden.
Don’t forget roof overhangs. )
For
sandy soil, your rain garden should be 20-30% of the drain area.
For example, if your roof and driveway measures 1200 square feet
and all the rain from them will be used, your rain garden should
be 20 to 30% of that, or 240-360 square feet. (ex: 10’ X
24’). For clay soil, your rain garden should be about 60% of the
drain area. If you improve your soil drainage and replace your
soil with the rain garden soil mix mentioned above,
your rain garden should generally be about 20-30% of the square
footage of your drain area. Rain gardens for single-family homes
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