Rain Garden Maintenance

Background

Rain gardens help to reduce water flow onto streets and into storm sewers, filter water, replenish groundwater supplies, and provide habitat for pollinator species and other wildlife.  

In 2025, members of Sustainable Highland Park and others received the Park Partners Grant to revitalize Highland Park’s rain gardens. In the fall of 2025, we weeded and pruned the gardens on South 4th Ave, South 5th Ave, and at the Teen Center. We also planted two native species at the Teen Center.

In the spring of 2026, we planted over 400 plants (21 species) in the rain gardens on South 4th and South 5th. All plant species are native to New Jersey.  

How You Can Help

Since then, we have been regularly maintaining the gardens, including weeding, watering, pruning, planting, trash removal, and other minor repairs. We will continue this work indefinitely and are in need of additional volunteers. All supplies will be provided. See the Events page for upcoming volunteer opportunities. 

View Our Plant Guide

We also compiled a guide of the plants we planted in 2026 and plants already in the gardens. Photos include both flowering and non-flowering plants, where available. All plants have color-coded stakes, which are listed with the plants in the guide. The guide can be found here.