Rain to Table, Part 2: Growing native plants and native foods with rainwater.

by Lisa Shipek, WMG Executive Director

Installing a rain garden should be a rite of passage for living in the Sonoran Desert. When you do, you’ll transition from a city dweller to a desert dweller taking part in the intricate web of water, soil, plants, and wildlife that make our desert community distinct.

Someday soon, rain gardens will be the essential, basic infrastructure of any landscape in Baja Arizona. If you install a rain garden in your yard today, you may be the first on your street. But then sit back and watch other basins, berms, and swales pop up, at neighbors’ and friends’ yards. The water-harvesting mania catches on quickly, and for good reason. It makes sense, and we get instant gratification when rainfall soaks into our basins to grow lush native gardens.