A Rain Garden In Action

Rain Garden at Mama Walnut Farm

Mama Tree, located in the Upper Ojai Valley, is a small Ag farm whose main crops are Pixies and Olives. The Green Valley Project Youth Council designed this educational pollinator garden for the Mama Walnut Farm to create much needed habitat for birds, butterflies, bees and other native pollinators. The garden also includes a demonstrative bioswale which will help to slow, spread and sink runoff from the roof of the ​barn before it reaches the road, also helping to reduce erosion. This Pollinator garden will also be used as a demonstration site to promote pollinator gardens throughout the Ojai Valley.

Local youths designed this garden with experts from Watershed Progressive, C.R.E.W.’s field team worked to dig the bioswale, and community members came out to help plant california native plants, mulch, and place river stones in this rain garden.

In early January, Ventura County saw the strongest storm of the season where Ojai received over 5.5 inches of rain in the course of two days. This gave the rain garden at Mama Walnut farm a chance to function as planned! Check out the rain collecting and slowly spreading in the photo to your left. Very exciting!