Washtenaw County Water Resources

The Master Rain Garden class is excellent. The teaching team was knowledgeable and engaging. An added and key benefit was access to a network of knowledgeable water and/or gardening gurus. It has been a delight to watch the rain garden that I developed during this class flourish and flower throughout the seasons. And no more standing water! Hurray! And my neighbors have been stopping by to learn more about it as well. I highly recommend this great learning opportunity.

The MRG class instructors have solid professional experience and education and the course covers the entire spectrum of knowledge the student needs to locate, design and safely construct a rain garden. In my class, a Civil Engineer spoke on hydrology, simplifying excavation, soil science and underground utilities. The class is an informal recitation format with short lectures, slides, physical examples, student participation, Q&A and general discussion. Homework is given and reviewed and each class ends with a short quiz and an opportunity to comment on the content or issues. All this plus field visits to local rain gardens. Finally, students present their designs to the class and receive expert commentary providing a good level of confidence. Completing my rain garden, I felt well schooled and prepared to handle issues or problems and the instructors have been friendly and available for help; years afterword. Highly recommended!!!!

The Rain Garden class offered by the county was awesome. Rain gardens are becoming increasingly critical, and to be guided through the process of designing and building one by 3 such amazing experts (not to mention all the input from fellow learners) was extremely valuable, and we were able to put it all together into a garden almost immediately. Most of all, it was just plain fun! And now, when folks stop and ask about our garden, the effort and encouragement come full circle.

Lots of fun and collegial interactions with teachers and students. By creating a rain garden plan for our own water management problem in class, I was able to follow through and complete my rain garden the following spring-early summer.

The Master Rain Gardner class allows like minded people to gather and design their rain gardens as a collaborative, supportive group with the resources of the entire group at each others fingertips. Harry, Susan, and Shannan are extremely knowledgeable and helpful through the design process.

Very well presented information. Great support. Lots of interactive projects. If you want to learn how and why to create a Rain Garden this is the place to go.