A ‘Convenient’ Rain Garden

I went to the Kwik Trip convenience store/gas station on Cass Street in La Crosse, WI the other day to buy a paper (some people do still read those things) and, coming out, I saw Purple Coneflowers.  I thought, “Well, that’s nice. Someone is planting some nice wildflowers here.”  As I looked closer I saw Black-eyed Susans and Joe Pye Weed.  It’s exciting to see some natives in a downtown area. But even better is where they are planted:  in a rain garden, next to the new car wash!  When they re-built the Kwik Trip here, someone had the knowledge, desire and pull to convince some higher-ups that a rain garden isn’t a waste of precious financial resources and real estate, but a vital and realistic way to save water resources.  They didn’t use some species that may have been more appropriate, and they used some that would do better in a different habitat, but I was thrilled to see someone thinking about the environment.  If every new building project had someone to suggest and push for rain gardens, I believe that would be a very good thing. So thank you, Kwik Trip, for brightening my day!