Vet Crew Complete Rain Garden at Our Savior's Lutheran Church in Everett

In the fall of 2016, Our Savior's Lutheran Church and Preschool in south Everett (near Pigeon Creek) completed the addition of an indoor space known as The Commons for gatherings of all kinds. The additional space created a much larger roof area which meant there would be more rain water moving across the hard impermeable surface of the roof and into the gutters, with nowhere to infiltrate into the earth. Pastor David Parks noticed a significant amount of extra rainfall passing his window on the Olympic Boulevard side of the church.

In 2017, Our Savior's had Snohomish Conservation District out for a site visit to determine if they were a good candidate for a rain garden. They were, but the construction season of 2017 was cut short, ironically, by heavy rains, so it had to wait until 2018.

This June, our Vet Crew was on site for four days doing a hand dig out due to the location of the proposed rain garden. Their efforts have produced another fine rain garden that will capture the rain, filter it, and return it to the groundwater. And, if extra rain goes beyond the capacity of the rain garden, it will overflow through a pipe into the hillside of native Salal.

Check out these photos from the dig out and completion. You can view videos of this project on our Facebook page.