Agriculture professor Karen Midden explains the purpose of the rain garden located east of the Agriculture Building during the building’s Earth Day open-house tours. The rain garden, which was funded by the Green Fund, was installed in October 2012 to capture water and replenish surrounding soil while preventing flooding, said Nick Ouellette, a graduate student in horticultural science. Ouellette, who wrote the Green Fund project proposal, said rain gardens are an important answer to urban flooding problems, as they redirect water from sewers to purify plants. “The main purpose is sending the water back to the earth,” he said. “Mother Nature can actually clean the water better than we can.” Alexa Rogals-Daily Egyptian 

Photo taken by Laura Roberts of the Daily Egyptian