Native Plants: Plants & Their Uses

It takes hundreds of years to build just one inch of topsoil! Human activity has been squandering this precious resource, which of course is essential for plant life, including the food we eat. Earth has lost half of its topsoil in the past 150 years.

The URI Home*A*Syst Program is an educational, technical resource to Rhode Island residents. We work to provide residents with the skills and resources needed to protect their drinking water quality, the quality of the State’s water resources, and to take action to protect their health and the environment.

Rain gardens, which are small, shallow areas filled with beautiful native plants, reduce polluted runoff from entering water ways.

A rain garden is vegetation designed to collect runoff from impervious surfaces, allowing water to infiltrate the ground. Rain garden plants are generally robust native species that can thrive in extremely wet and dry weather.