Shoemaker Green Rain Garden

The rain garden at Shoemaker Green contains highly absorptive engineered planting soils where floodplain species flourish. Stormwater filters through a system of trench drains and inlets before it enters the rain garden, where it is further filtered through a series of stone and vegetative swales. Captured water enters a 20,000 gallon underground cistern for future irrigation use, reducing its impact on Philadelphia's overtaxed sewage system. The rain garden is part of a monitoring program where students, faculty and staff measure performance factors such as rate of absorption, evapotranspiration, and depletion of water-borne pollutants. As a result of this collaborative process, the rain garden at shoemaker green will inform best practices for other landscapes and continue to push the boundaries of ecologically appropriate yet beautiful design. Designed by Andropogon Associates.



Some plants in this garden include:

creek sedge (Carex amphibola)

blue flag iris (Iris versicolor)

turtlehead (Chelone glabra)

brown-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia fulgida)

dwarf fothergilla (Fothergilla gardenii)

bald cypress (Taxodium distichum)