From Kansas City Star
Kansas City Art Institute works with area businesses to create rain garden a Theis Park.
This will not be your average backyard rain garden.
The Kansas City Art Institute and partners within a month will install a rain garden half a football field long in the southwest corner of Frank A. Theis Park, near Volker Boulevard and Oak Street.
The nearly 5,500-square-foot, boomerang-shaped garden will occupy a natural drainage area on the north bank of Brush Creek. It will be planted with 18 varieties of low-maintenance, native Missouri plants with deep root systems to draw water into the ground and reduce surface runoff.
The idea for this project came from a class at the Art Institute called Pervasive Ecology and Design.
"We see this as a long-term investment in the community," said Julia Cole, chairwoman of the interdisciplinary arts department at the school.
Among plantings will be buffalo grass, Missouri primrose, purple coneflower, stiff goldenrod and blue flag.
Matt Bunch, a horticulturalist with the Missouri Department of Conservation's Discovery Center, will supervise the planting. Other partners include the Brush Creek Community Partners, BNIM architects, Black & Veatch and McCownGordon Construction.
The park board approved the rain garden plan Tuesday, and ground work is to begin later this month. Planting day, to which the public is invited, is April 7.
By Matt Campbell
