After the first stormwater basin was renovated, a bigger portion of the remaining original design was slated for renovation the following year.  The West entrance featured double stormwater collection basins with a curved sidewalk to the parking area. Harkin Center ph2 the following May Again, Kelly Norris was tasked with reimagining the space to take it the next level, and Abundant Design was chosen as the contractor.   Originally the surrounding areas were planted with prairie dropseed and echinacea, with sedges in the basin floors.   Before pics Mos ..read more

Earlier this year Clive rolled out its new stormwater assistance program  City of Clive's  NEWLY UPDATED  Stormwater Assistance Program We shared their website on our social media, and soon after, we were contacted about installing a rain garden close to our office.  The first one using their new program. The homeowner wanted to help by reducing her runoff and is making steps to become more environmentally responsible with her property - less spraying and more habitat.  However, she isn't fond of the wild, "prairie look" and hoped for something "tidy" looking. Keepin ..read more

PRESS RELEASE - The Iowa Stormwater Education Partnership (ISWEP) is pleased to announce their 2024 award recipients.  On September 10, 2024 awards were presented at the Iowa Water Conference in Coralville, Iowa.   Jeff Reiland of Abundant Design in the Des Moines area accepted the Urban Stormwater and Watershed Protection Private Organization of the Year Award.   This award recognizes the leadership provided by Abundant Design for the design and installation of green infrastructure including Drake University and Easter Lake Watershed projects.   Prac ..read more

More pictures from the 2024 Iowa Water Conference - Welcome! on the big screen & one of several 'Ding' Darling cartoons on display Topsoil - sadly our biggest export  Nitrogen, nitrates and health ISWEP Urban Stormwater and Watershed Protection Private Organization of the Year Above photo courtesy of the Nevada FFA's Kevin Cooper,  winner of Iowa Agriculture Water Alliance's Individual Impact Award View this post on Instagram A post shared by Nevada FFA (@nevadaiaffa) Thank you to the Iowa Storm Water Education Partnership ..read more

This project was one of several projects that came after we relocated the Sprout Garden and installed the Drake Food Forest.  The Tom and Ruth Harkin Center was initially designed and built to bring an innovative mixture of accessibility and sustainability to the campus experience.  It serves a place for, despite the name, non-partisan research and outreach around policy issues important to Senator Harkin. Asters blooming as the planting was finished The stormwater design was functional but never really blossomed.  So, in the summer of 2021, Kelly Norris was commissione ..read more

As summer winds down and school starts back up for many, it may feel like the party is over... but with cooler temperatures comes a beautiful time of year, full of warm colors, falling leaves and favorite sporting events. Fall is also a GREAT time to plant trees!  Planting in the Fall can set your new trees and shrubs up for long term success, with less stress than summer and beneficial root growth for a head start next season. Cooler autumn temperatures help reduce transplant stress and moisture loss.  As long as the soil temperature is above 50°F the roots of the tree are still ..read more

Here's a fun video we helped make with the Rain Campaign to showcase rain gardens as a Stormwater Best Management Practice.  Their videos help encourage homeowners to consider rain gardens and other best management practices to help with stormwater runoff mitigation and to help them with potential problems in their own yards - erosion, soggy areas, etc. We had already been working with the homeowners in conjunction with the Easter Lake Watershed coordinator to help them with their yard issues and reduce the storm surge into the lake.  The following pictures show the floodi ..read more

Earlier this season we had been joking that even though we were busy, we hadn't done a single rain garden installation yet.  We had done some revamping of a couple older ones, an edible landscape for a commercial project, several large native plantings and a homestead orchard. Little did we know that we would do two back-to-back rain garden installs, that also wanted to include as many food producing plants as possible! This first project in Clive was the first to use their newly retooled cost share program (link). The other was in Des Moines, and after a little time to think it through ..read more

Earlier this year the Polk County Water Resources team asked us to help with a special project.  They were hoping to try a new prairie sod product they had learned about by webinar.  There was a small drainage easement near Ankeny that was a likely candidate for this project, and the neighboring homeowners had been fighting weeds and water issues for several years while trying to maintain the space. Before - First Look Messy drainage easement from the outlet Many suburban developments have a drainage easement that runs along the back property edges.  A lot of homeowners ..read more

 We design and install edible landscapes, we are NOT edible landscapers... ...someone needs to inform the ticks and mosquitoes! A recent article I read mentioned that some invasive species of plants can increase populations of ticks!  It turns out, the dense, thorny Japanese Barberry shrub is actually great habitat for ticks. How an invasive plant is helping ticks survive “Barberry thickets actually make a pretty good habitat, not just for ticks but for some of their host species,” said Susan Elias, a research associate at the Lyme and Vector-Borne Disease Laboratory at the Maine M ..read more