The Red Oak Rain Garden is a demonstration landscape on the University of Illinois campus that reduces flooding and improves water quality. It also increases green infrastructure literacy and is a model for how to design, build, and care for rain gardens. It is managed by the Red Oak Rain Garden Team, who are part of University of Illinois Extension and Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant.
While the garden was completely renovated in 2019, the team secured additional funding and coordinated an expansion in 2021. The rain garden now encompasses approximately 12,000 square feet (up from 9,200) with more than 13,000 plants representing 59 species. Additionally, a neighboring acre of land surrounding a stormwater retention pond was seeded with 41 native prairie plant species, and hundreds of native spring ephemerals were installed at another nearby site. The rain garden has a capacity of nearly 27,000 gallons.
In 2022, the team hosted a celebration to mark the completion of the boardwalk bridge, which spans the garden and is comprised of sustainably sourced, locally milled timber. The Red Oak Rain Garden’s eight outreach brochures, inspired by the garden’s plants, were translated into Spanish. The team also worked with the University Foundation to launch a donation hub to establish a long-term garden maintenance endowment.
Throughout 2021-22, more than a 1,000 people learned about stormwater management and the benefits of green infrastructure via presentations and tours. The garden’s online engagement remained strong with more than 17,000 website views, more than 2,000 blog reads, and 400−600 followers on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
Education is a key component to the rain garden’s approach of using service learning to accomplish maintenance, which is often a barrier to green infrastructure success. Care is provided by an ever-growing base of community and student volunteers who receive hands-on training and lessons about native plants and rain gardens at the start of each workday. Additionally, its design utilizes the concept of designing with maintenance in mind, which makes stewardship manageable. The Red Oak Rain Garden approach is a model for the demonstration rain gardens built in Illinois as part of the Rainscaping Education program. For more information, see https://go.illinois.edu/RORG
