Did you ever think planting a garden could help keep our waterways clean? A rain garden will! A rain garden is a shallow depression planted with deep-rooted native plants -- and grasses that capture and filter stormwater runoff.

In a natural environment, about 50 percent of rainwater soaks into the ground, 40 percent evaporates or is taken up by plants, and only about 10 percent runs off the surface into streams, rivers and lakes. Development alters how water naturally travels because water cannot pass through impervious surfaces like roads, buildings, parking lots, sidewalks and driveways as it does through soil, causing it to run off.

In large cities and commercial areas, more than two-thirds of rainwater runs off instead of being absorbed into the ground. And when this water runs off, it takes with it all the oils, salts, fertilizers, pesticides, pet waste, transportation chemicals and sediment it has picked up along the way. You can help water enter back into the soil where it can be filtered by plants and their root structures before entering the watershed as clean, fresh water.

Building a Rain Garden
1. Choose a location. Create your garden at least 10 feet away from your home to prevent flooding in your house. Choose a naturally occurring low spot in your yard or position the garden where your downspouts or sump pump outlet can direct rainwater into your garden. Do not locate the garden over a septic field.

2. Measure drainage area. If you are capturing water from a roof or other hard surface, you will need to measure the drainage area of that surface and multiply by a factor associated with the type of soil you have. See the websites at the end of this article for details about how to do this.

3. Create a design and choose your plants. Consider a size and shape that suits the space and will carry out the required drainage function. Use native plants since they are best adapted to your climate. Choose flowers and grasses that grow well both in wet and dry areas because the rain garden will temporarily fill with rainwater from time to time. Visit the websites (below) for templates and lists of native plants that work in different areas.

4. Prepare the garden. Contact your local utilities before you start digging. Mark the shape and boundaries, then remove turf grass and dig approximately four to eight inches deep. Use the soil you removed to build a berm around the edges if necessary. Add two to three inches of compost and mix well. Your rain garden should be lower than the area around it to capture rain water.

5. Plant and mulch the flowers and grasses. Place plants about one foot apart. Mulch the area with coarse, fibrous, shredded wood chips that won't float or blow away. Apply two to three inches of mulch to keep moisture in and weeds out.

6. Water and arrange downspouts. If it doesn't rain, water the garden daily for two weeks until the garden is established. Be sure that downspouts direct water to the rain garden but don't hit plants directly. For more information, visit www.water.rutgers.edu/Fact_Sheets/fs513.pdf or www.lowimpactdevelopment.org/raingarden_design.

Fifteen years ago, a group of volunteers realized that if something wasn't done to help Island Beach State Park in Ocean County, N.J., the park and its natural wonders might not survive. State funds were diminishing, so in 1996, the Friends of Island Beach State Park (FOIBSP) was created -- a nonprofit, all-volunteer organization focused on interpretive, educational, recreational, and research programs and events at Island Beach State Park. The group accomplishes its mission thanks to corporate and individual donations, as well as fundraising activities and events, like the popular Beach Plum Festival held every September.

ShopRite is proud to be a sponsor of FOIBSP's activities.

Island Beach State Park, established in 1959, is a thin, 10-mile-long, barrier island that acts as the first line of defense against coastal storms. Its eastern edge is lined with banks of sand created by wind. On their own, these sand dunes are extremely mobile, always in a state of flux up and down the beach, but when a dune is anchored by vegetation, it becomes a barrier, protecting the land and waterways behind it from storms and surf. The danger at Island Beach State Park is that if visitors walk on the dunes and erode the vegetation, a storm could more easily break down the dunes and open up a new inlet from the ocean into Barnegat Bay on the island's opposite side, devastating the delicate balance of its ecosystem.

Besides its importance in protecting the natural resources of the area, Island Beach also offers recreational and educational opportunities. The park brings together diverse activities, such as visiting the interpretive and nature centers, hiking, kayaking, birding, swimming, fishing and even dune buggying. FOIBSP is just one of dozens of "Friends" groups helping to protect the hundreds of miles of coastal barrier islands along the East Coast. These independent, all-volunteer, nonprofit organizations assist a particular park with special events and programs, park maintenance, planning, fundraising, staffing the nature centers and advocating for the park.

At the helm of FOIBSP is Rosemary Mason, who easily credits her colleagues for the good work done by the organization.

"I am merely the captain of the ship. I rely heavily on many other volunteers in their efforts to encourage protection of the barrier island ecosystem, as well as many of the other components of our mission at the park," said Mason.

Ray Bukowski has been working with the N.J. Dept. of Environmental Protection since 1992 and was recently reassigned to assist in managing park operations at Island Beach State Park. "Trying to keep connected to the public is a constant balancing act," said Bukowski. "It is a unique challenge to balance protection with park access."

Referring to the work of the FOIBSP, Bukowski said, "Education is the vital link between resource conservation and public access."

One project with a lot of impact is the annual Beach Grass Planting. Keeping the dunes in the park healthy is an extremely important part of park management. Pat Vargo is the vice president of the organization and the dune restoration project manager.

"This year, between March and June, we hope to have more than 1,000 volunteers coming to Island Beach State Park to help us plant American Beach Grass on the dunes," said Vargo.

Volunteers come from all walks of life, from schoolchildren in western New Jersey who have never even seen the ocean, to local scout groups and family groups. These volunteers will plant 25,000 plants, all of which will help keep the dunes structurally sound by creating a strong root system that will withstand storms and protect Barnegat Bay.

What are the Friends of Island Beach State Park excited about?
Watch a pair of osprey return to its nest, lay eggs and raise chicks this spring on the new "osprey cam" at www.friendsofislandbeach.org.

ShopRite at the Beach
ShopRite has been a strong partner in the Beach Grass Planting project, posting notices in its stores to recruit volunteers, donating funds to purchase plants, and sending volunteers from its ShopRite stores to help on planting days. Last year, ShopRite donated $2,000 to purchase beach grass plants, and a group of 45 Green Team associates from ShopRite stores participated with their families in a day of planting (photo above).

"We are privileged to be working with ShopRite staff over the past two years during our Beach Grass planting event," said Pat Vargo.

Urban Gardens
Gardens aren't just for the suburbs or the country -- you don't have to have a big plot of land to plant a garden. In fact, some people are creating gardens with hardly any land at all! Urban gardening is taking off in unexpected places.

An urban garden has many benefits, both environmental and social. Environmentally, this little bit of green space full of plants absorbs carbon dioxide and can have a cooling effect. Socially, an urban garden can be an educational focal point.

An urban garden absorbs carbon dioxide.	Green roofs are green spaces created on top of buildings.

Green Roofs
Taking urban gardening to new heights is the idea of a green roof. Also called living roofs, green roofs are green spaces created on top of buildings. They can be functional and fun, absorbing rainwater, providing an insulating layer, creating habitat for urban wildlife, and helping to lower urban air temperatures and combat the heat-island effect experienced in cities when too much asphalt and other dark, hard surfaces absorb heat and hold it long after the sun has set.

"Extensive" green roofs use low-lying plants that provide ground cover and are very drought tolerant. Sedum is a popular plant for this type of green roof construction. "Intensive" green roofs use plants that provide more of a natural landscape that may have heights of several feet and require deeper soil depth and irrigation.

Don't Call These Gardens!

Teens show off their green thumbs to ShopRite's Jeff Brown. Photo: Mike Basher	Jeff Brown admires an urban farm -- a transformed lot in inner-city Philadelphia. Photo: Mike Basher

These are urban farms! Brown's Super Stores -- owners and operators of five ShopRite stores in the Philadelphia area -- is just one of several partners working with the Federation of Neighborhood Centers' Teens 4 Good program to help teach underserved, inner-city youth about farming, gardening, agriculture and doing business. This youth-led food production business empowers disadvantaged youth while providing nutritious foods for communities that may not otherwise have access to them. They clean up and cultivate seven abandoned lots throughout Philadelphia, donated by the city for this purpose, and grow a variety of produce, which they sell to local markets, restaurants and grocery stores, including several ShopRite stores.

"The vacant lots, which were once symbols of hopelessness in the community, are now beacons of hope," said Diane Cornman-Levy, executive director of the Federation of Neighborhood Centers. "The urban farms have become points of engagement and a source of energy and transformation for the communities where they are located and for the youth involved."

Brown's Super Stores purchases the produce at market cost and displays it as locally grown by the Teens 4 Good program in selected stores. The program hopes to increase production through improved techniques and by acquiring more space, to meet increasing demand for its healthy, local products.

The program also helps the youths with business plans, marketing strategies, public speaking and other business concepts. ShopRite owner Jeff Brown and his team assists by recommending what produce will grow and sell best. Brown also has hired some of the program's participants to work in ShopRite stores, demonstrating the wide range of career opportunities available in the food business.

Brown's Super Stores purchases the teen's produce at market cost and displays it as locally grown by the Teens 4 Good program in selected stores. Photo: Federation of Neighborhood Centers

A Year In Your Life: How to Conserve Energy and Water, and Reduce Waste All Year Long
Every season of the year offers opportunities for you and your family to do a little something to reduce your impact on the earth. If you implement just a few ideas each season, by the end of the year you'll have increased the efficiency of your home, reduced your environmental footprint, cut your expenses and set a good example for others. So start now!

Spring -- time for spring cleaning
Turn down your hot water heater to 120 degrees to 125 degrees F. For each 10 degrees F reduction in water temperature, you can reduce energy costs by 3 to 5 percent. Manufacturers often set water heater thermostats at 140 degrees F, which not only uses lots of energy but also poses a safety hazard from scalding. Reducing water temperature to 120 degrees F also slows mineral buildup and corrosion in your water heater and pipes. This helps your water heater last longer and operate at its maximum efficiency. However, if you have a dishwasher without a booster heater, keep temperatures at 130 degrees F to 140 degrees F for optimum cleaning. And if anyone in your house has a suppressed immune system or chronic respiratory disease, you may consider keeping your hot water tank at 140 degrees F.

Donate or recycle old electronics, furniture, clothing, sports equipment, appliances and more. Check with your local waste and recycling utility or check www.Earth911.com on the web for recycling locations and donation centers near you.

Check faucets and toilets for leaks. Check your toilet for silent leaks by adding four or five drops of food coloring or a few dye tabs (from your hardware or plumbing store) in your toilet tank. Wait 15 minutes; if the water in your bowl is tinted that color, water is leaking. Drips from your faucets are more obvious. If you detect leaks, check with your local plumbing or hardware store, call a plumber or find one of the numerous helpful web sites that will walk you through fixing simple leaks.

Summer -- Time for Outdoor Activities and Keeping Cool
Water your lawn thoroughly but less often to reduce water use and strengthen your lawn. To determine how long you should water, try this experiment: Spread out at least a half dozen empty tuna cans or other small straight-sided containers on your lawn and turn on your sprinklers. Check the time. When most of the cans have one inch of water in them, turn off the sprinklers and check how long the water ran. This is how long you should run your sprinklers weekly during dry weather to keep your lawn green. Be sure the sprinklers hit only the lawn so water is not running off your driveway or sidewalks.

Use your ceiling fans instead of your AC. Moving air feels cooler as it increases evaporation on your body so you won't need to turn your AC temperature down. But be sure to turn off fans when you're not in the room since they don't actually cool the air. When there's no one around to cool down, running fans are just wasting electricity.

Fall -- Time to Start Winterizing
Check furnace filters before you turn on your furnace for the winter. Change out or clean all filters so that the system doesn't have to work harder than it should to move air.

Test around windows, doors, outlets, and other places where air can get in. Hold a tissue in front of areas that might be leaking -- if it flutters, you have an air leak. For outlets, purchase foam insulation forms that fit neatly inside the outlet, under the cover. Windows and doors may require foam weather stripping. For doors used often, tuck a "draft snake" along the base of the door.

Winterize your compost pile too. Add leaves from fall raking to your bin or pile to balance all the green grass and veggie scraps you've added through the summer and to help insulate the pile for the winter. You can keep adding kitchen scraps during the winter; just bury them in the top layers of leaves and they'll be ready to turn in to the pile when it melts in the spring.

Winter -- Time for Staying Inside and Enjoying the Holidays
Run ceiling fans in reverse to push warm air that rises to the ceiling back down into the living space of your home.

Close fireplace dampers when not in use to reduce drafts.

Keep waste prevention in mind during the holidays. For holiday parties, request RSVPs so you know how much food to prepare. Send leftovers home with guests and donate edible food to local shelters when appropriate. When gift-giving, consider giving services, consumables or gift cards that won't go to waste. Donate (or even regift) any unwanted gifts you receive.

U.S. EPA Food Recovery Challenge

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA), through a partnership with its WasteWise program, is challenging businesses, industry, and institutions to prevent food waste through reducing, donating, and recycling. Both ShopRite and the Community FoodBank of New Jersey, the largest recipient of ShopRite's food, are program endorsers. Endorsers demonstrate their environmental leadership and play a pivotal role in conserving natural resources and preventing pollution by educating their constituents about the benefits of reducing solid waste.

In 2010, almost 35 million tons of food waste were generated and 97% was thrown away, according to U.S. EPA. Much of this "waste" is not waste at all, but actually safe, wholesome food that could potentially feed millions of Americans. And excess food, leftovers, and scraps that are not fit for consumption or donation can be used to feed the soil by composting food waste into a nutrient rich soil amendment.

ShopRite demonstrates its commitment to environmental sustainability through this program by working with local food banks to donate as much unsaleable food as possible for human consumption before its stores send food waste for composting.

U.S. EPA's Food Recovery Hierarchy (above) illustrates the preferred options for reducing excess food waste:

• Source reduction
• Feed hungry people
• Feed animals
• Industrial uses
• Composting
• Landfill/incinerator

For more information, www.epa.gov/wastes/conserve/smm/foodrecovery/index.htm.