Sustainability Team – Rain Garden

In our garden everything stays dirty…. trowels, shovels, garden gloves and pitchforks! The Sustainability Action Team has been sweating hard the past 4 months to keep over 200 native plants growing. This is no puny garden and there is a lot to maintain.

With a green infrastructure grant from the Tampa Bay Estuary Program, we created a 220’ rain garden at the Sanderlin Neighborhood Family Center, where our League office is located. The purpose is to reduce pollutants in runoff from an adjacent parking lot and provide natural habitat for our local wildlife. Native plants such as Milkweed, Firebush, Dune Sunflower, Buttonbush, Muhly Grass, and many others are flourishing in the garden and will filter out pollutants that would otherwise end up in Tampa Bay and possibly in our drinking water. It will also be a “demonstration” rain garden with professional signage to educate school kids and citizens about its importance.

Our gardening group consists of League members and non-League volunteers. We generally meet on Sunday mornings and Wednesday evenings for one hour so if you’re interested in joining in on the fun contact Sustainability Chair Laura Crabtree at lauracrabtree.league@gmail.com  to find out more. You don’t have to be available both of those days or even every week to help, let us know what fits your schedule.