The park near my house in Springfield used to flood every spring, but not this year.

They replaced the old concrete drainage ditch with a natural swale full of native plants about 18 months ago. Now the water soaks in instead of rushing into the street, and I keep hearing people say these 'green' fixes don't work. Has anyone else seen a local project that actually solved a problem like this?

3 comments

3 Comments

grant8262mo ago

Honestly it's wild how often the simple, old way of doing things works better than the fancy new concrete we keep using.

anthony_jenkins614d ago

Used to think the modern engineered stuff was always better, but @schmidt.eva's example really flipped my view. Seeing how rain gardens just handle the water naturally without all that concrete is crazy impressive honestly. Guess sometimes the old school way just knows what it's doing.

schmidt.eva2mo ago

Yeah, we had a spot in our town that would always turn into a lake after a storm. They put in some rain gardens and a big patch of that deep-rooted prairie grass a few years back. It was a mess during construction (you know how that goes), but now that area just drinks up the water. It's bone dry after heavy rain when the whole street used to flood.