July is always an exciting month for the rain garden campaign. This is when we hear from all of our 12 WSU Extension partners from around Puget Sound telling us about the amazing work they are doing. With 8 of 12 counties reporting as of publication of this article it’s exciting to say that we estimate over 1,500 interested individuals at 26 public events were reached, 64 individuals were trained for outreach and 35 partnerships are being actively built across the region. Our own team has built or begun planning 18 rain gardens in the last 6 months and helped provide advice at 17 properties.

The most commonly cited barrier keeping homeowners from building one of their own is money. With DIY projects ranging from $200-$1,000 and professionally designed and installed rain gardens often costing $4,000, it’s easy to understand why such an investment is daunting, but we are also seeing an uptick in local governments that are helping to foot the bill. How much help would be enough help for you to put in a rain garden? We want to know so we can tell your local stormwater utilities if they should offer rain garden rebates or other incentives.

Also exciting is the announcement of a first-of-its kind “Green Infrastructure Summit” that we will host in the Fall or Winter. This summit will bring together partners and collaborating thought-leaders from across Puget Sound to share successes and struggles and build a stronger, more connected Green Infrastructure community that is a national and global leader in the emerging Green Infrastructure economy. More coming soon.