TL;DR
A rain garden is a shallow, bowl-shaped planted depression that intercepts runoff from roofs, driveways, and lawns, holding it long enough to soak into amended soil within a day or two rather than rushing into storm drains. Built with a ponding depth of 6 to 12 inches, an engineered soil mix, and deep-rooted native plants tolerant of both flooding and drought, it filters pollutants and recharges groundwater.
What it means
A rain garden is a shallow, bowl-shaped planted depression that intercepts runoff from roofs, driveways, and lawns, holding it long enough to soak into amended soil within a day or two rather than rushing into storm drains. Built with a ponding depth of 6 to 12 inches, an engineered soil mix, and deep-rooted native plants tolerant of both flooding and drought, it filters pollutants and recharges groundwater. Many stormwater utilities offer rebates per square foot installed.
Where it sits in the glossary
Rain garden is part of the Trade jargon group inside the ProFix Directory glossary. Browse every term in this category from the glossary index.
Why Ohio homeowners should know it
This is a term Ohio homeowners encounter when reading contractor quotes, hiring paperwork, or inspection reports. Understanding it well enough to ask one good follow-up question is usually all the protection a homeowner needs.
ProFix Directory keeps definitions short on the index page and saves the longer context — Ohio-specific rules, where the term comes from, and which ProFix tools touch it — for these per-term pages so the term is easy to cite and easy to share.
ProFix tools that touch this term
See also
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