Let It Rain

WANT TO IMPRESS THE NEIGHBORS? A LUSH GREEN LAWN ISN’T THE ONLY WAY.

- CHARLENE OLDHAM

Susan Pang was logging the mandatory volunteer hours needed to become a Missouri master gardener at the Litzsinger Road Ecology Center in 2010 when a gift changed her landscape for life.

“I got my first native plant there, and that’s when I fell in love,” she says.

A decade later, her lot is lawn-free and boasts a variety of native prairie plants, a natural frog pond, and other environmentally friendly features that draw birds, butterflies, and mosquito-eating amphibians. In addition to serving as a haven for wildlife, Pang’s property reduces runoff through stormwater-management features, including four rain gardens.

“The water has to go somewhere, and often it doesn’t go where people want it to go,” Pang says.