Winning video submission & rain garden installation
In Spring 2016, Windfall Centre held a Win a Rain Garden Contest where Newmarket and Aurora homeowners could enter for a chance to win a free expertly-designed rain garden for their front yard. We received some really amazing contest submissions, such as videos, stories, poems and photos! Thank you to everyone who entered the contest!
Our Contest Judging Panel was comprised of a wonderful group of project partners:
Lori McLean, Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority
Jen Slykhuis, Town of Newmarket
Mary Hemmingway, The Regional Municipality of York
Aileen Barclay, Frankie Flowers / Resource Management Strategies Inc.
The Contest Judging Panel met to review all the contest submissions and the Ferrie Family from Newmarket was chosen as the Rain Garden Contest winners! The Ferrie Family made an amazingly creative video showcasing why they wanted to win a rain garden for their home.
Watch the winning video below:
Why did we give away a rain garden?
Rain gardens are specially designed to capture rain and stormwater runoff and they help keep many pollutants from entering our lakes and waterways in the Lake Simcoe watershed.
Rain gardens use native plants and materials that allow water to slowly soak into the ground, rather than run off into local storm drains.
Not only are rain gardens an environmentally friendly way to garden, they are also beautiful and easy to maintain.
Creating the Ferrie family's rain garden:
Before the rain garden installation.Crew members from Cypress Hill Landscape Design & Build removing grass.Measuring and mapping out the infiltration area of the rain garden.Cypress Hill Landscape Design & Build preparing the rain garden.Preparing the infiltration area of the rain garden.Adding drainage pipes to allow water to flow from the downspouts, around an old tree stump and root system, and into the rain garden.On Saturday May 28th, Windfall Ecology Centre held a Build a Rain Garden Workshop for community members to learn about rain gardens and to help finish planting the Ferrie's rain garden.Following an introduction by Brent Kopperson, Executive Director and Founder of Windfall Ecology Centre, RAIN Program Manager, Andrea Fallone, explained what a rain garden was and why they are important for helping to protect our waterways. Andrea also discussed simple things that homeowners can do to limit their negative impact on our Lake Simcoe watershed.Jen Slykhuis from the Town of Newmarket explained how the Ferrie's home was within a target neighbourhood in Newmarket, where stormwater flows untreated via storm drains into local lakes and streams. Lori McLean from the Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority discussed the Conservation Authority's Landowner Environmental Assistance Program (LEAP), which provides funding for homeowners who want to install rain gardens on their property.Margaret Abernethy from Cypress Hill Landscape Design & Build went into greater detail about rain gardens, how they are built and what kinds of plants and materials work well within rain gardens.Margaret explained how the Ferrie's rain garden was designed and built, what obstacles they ran into and things to take into consideration when building a rain garden. After a quick gardening 101 lesson from Margaret, workshop attendees and volunteers got to work finishing the rain garden!Jen Slykhuis and a workshop attendee filling up wheelbarrows and buckets with composted pine mulch for the garden.Even though it was a hot day, everyone was smiling and having a great time! Laura Ferrie and her daughter planting native flowers together in their new garden. Andrea Fallone and a workshop attendee looking at the different kinds of pollinator plants. Everyone pitching in to get the garden planted. Jen Atkinson and workshop attendees planting a Bleeding Heart bush. Everyone hard at work. The rain garden starting to come together. Margaret installed a spiral of grasses within the stones of the rain garden's infiltration area. Looks beautiful!The Ferrie's new rain garden, complete with rain barrel, rain chain and a bee house! The Ferrie's new rain garden, all finished!
Thank you to everyone involved with this amazing project and to those who attended our workshop to help plant the rain garden.
Thank you to the Ferrie Family for being wonderful to work with - we hope you enjoy your new rain garden!
And a very special thank you to our project partners for all their help and hard work:
