PHOTO BY TERESA FURR
PTA parent and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist John Ann Shearer helps students plant cinnamon ferns, wildflowers and blueberry shrubs in a new rain garden on the Combs Elementary school campus. The rain garden will treat stormwater runoff from the school's parking lot before it enters nearby Simmons Branch.
Students at Combs Elementary School in Raleigh have planted a garden that has both beauty and a purpose.
More than 160 students in pre-kindergarten through fourth grade dug in to create a rain garden on campus that will add to the landscaping as well as filter stormwater runoff from the school's parking lot.
The garden's design, donated by Falcon Engineering, uses native plants that work with the soil to divert pollutants such as sediment, nitrogen, heavy metals, oil and gasoline that otherwise would run into Simmons Branch, the local watershed.
Teachers and students plan to use the rain garden, which also attracts beneficial insects, butterflies and birds, as an outdoor learning laboratory.
It's construction was sponsored by Combs' PTA with support from the Wake Soil and Water Conservation District's Community Conservation Assistance Program.
