Rain to Flood Scottish Rite—In a Good Way

In advance of the April 21 Collingswood Green Festival, the borough will debut a working rain garden at the Tuesday at 7:30 a.m.

Similar demonstrations will be a feature of the Green Festival, but the rain garden at the Scottish Rite is part of a larger beautification project underway at the site.

“The idea is to show how useful and stunning rain gardens can be,” said Commissioner Joan Leonard in a statement. “We’re proud to be showing off such a great feature at the Scottish Rite.”

A rain garden is a landscaping strategy designed to collect and manage stormwater runoff. When properly designed, it channels water away from areas where it can flood or damage a property and into places where it can be reabsorbed naturally into the ground. 

Improperly managed stormwater can overburden storm drains, flood unwanted areas, or carry pollutants to inland waterways, like creeks and streams. A rain garden can cut back on the negative impact of stormwater by as much as 30 percent.

The rain garden installed at the Scottish Rite theater will include local plants. The work will be completed by Brickman Landscaping of Cherry Hill.

Editor's note, March 28: View a photo gallery of the project at "Rise of a Rain Garden."