Alison's Rain Garden - August 2010
My own rain garden is thriving, and the hummingbird has been back to visit.
Today I’m sharing with you top rain garden design tips from authors Helen Kraus & Anne Spafford who inspired me to get digging.
I hope they will inspire you to start planning your own rain garden.
Location
Location, location, location! Be sure to site the rain garden where it will catch the most rain.
Take time to study how water flows across your yard in a rain storm. The lowest point on your property is not ideal (unless the ground continues sloping down to your neighbor)—you want to capture the water before it gets to that spot. It is difficult to dig there and expect it to magically drain.
Best Plants for a Rain Garden
Keep in mind that a rain garden will flood for short periods after a rain storm. It also can tolerate long dry periods. The best plants for a rain garden are those that thrive in both moisture extremes.
Rain Garden Style
A rain garden is exactly that—a garden. Whatever style resonates with you (naturalistic, informal, formal) it can be achieved in a rain garden just as it can in any garden. In addition to being beautiful and the envy of your neighbors, rain gardens also have the critical function of capturing and filtering storm water, one of the leading causes of water pollution.
Key to Creating a Filter Bed
The filter bed is the factory of the rain garden. The key to creating the best filter bed is to amend your native soil with compost. Whether you have sandy soil or clayey soil, compost is the ingredient that improves water retention (of sandy soil), water infiltration (of clayey soil) and brings in microbes (those little critters that help break down many pollutants). Moreover, compost provides nutrients that help plants grow and thrive.
If all you do is add sand and/or rock to your filter bed, you aren’t bringing in the bio component. Plants—especially our natives—will not grow well in that media. Additionally, clay plus sand does not improve drainage—that’s actually a good recipe for a brick!
A Four Season Rain Garden
A well-designed rain garden can have four seasons of interest—flowers, fruit, fall color, winter color. Just like any other garden, it can have additional functions (although not for vegetable-growing, which requires steady watering). So if you want to create a rain garden that attracts butterflies, you can!
Bio note: Dr. Helen Kraus and Anne Spafford teach horticulture at North Carolina State University. They are the authors of the award-winning book, Rain Gardening in the South: Ecologically Designed Gardens for Droughts, Deluges & Everything in Between (Eno Publishers).
For more information, see my review of Rain Gardening in the South, or visit Eno Publishers. This article originally appeared at Dailypress.com.
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My rain garden plans have been temporarily foiled by the drainage patterns around the house–the one really GOOD wet spot on the side of the house happens to be the primary vehicle access to the backyard, so before I put it in, there has to be A) nothing mowable, B) nothing large to be dragged away and C) no further landscaping or building that might require heavy machinery anywhere in the backyard.
…It’s gonna be awhile. (Someday!)
So far I’ve settled for sticking cannas under the downspouts. These are non-native, and sufficiently aggressive that I wouldn’t put them in the main garden bed, but they apparently are great filterers of pollutants from rainwater, and hummingbirds love them. Rumor has it I might find our native canna offered for sale somewhere…I’m keeping my eyes open!
UrsulaV´s last blog ..Meanwhile- Back At The Ranch…
UrsulaV, I’m delighted to learn that you are planning a rain garden. Personally I don’t think I’d put one in where it would block access for machinery. I’m with you on that one!
I don’t know if I’m understanding what you are saying here correctly, but a rain garden does not need to go in a wet spot. It can be placed somewhere convenient to you provided it is within the flow of water from neighbors, roofs, and/or hard surfaces, such as driveways.
I put mine in a spot which has a lot of water coming through from two different neighbors. It happens to also get water directly from a downspout from my own roof, but that was actually accidental and incidental. I created the depression which gathers the rain as it comes through – it was previously a well-draining grassy slope.
I hope that helps some. I do recommend that you check out Rain Gardening in the South if you can. I’d read quite a lot of free stuff on rain gardens, but I didn’t have a complete picture on rain gardening until I read this book. It’s simple and comprehensive at the same time.
Hmm, suppose I could dig an area, or set up a swale to form a wet area…or wettER area…I’d have to scope out the terrain sometime when it’s not so wet that EVERYTHING is swamp. Drainage is weird out here–it’s all clay, and everything eventually winds up in a pair of seasonally dry ditches running along the sides of the property. Which would be perfect, if they weren’t deepest, darkest shade!
I’ve seen that book at the store occasionally–maybe I should break down and actually buy a copy!
UrsulaV´s last blog ..Meanwhile- Back At The Ranch…
Ursula, I’d definitely look into getting hold of a copy of Rain Gardening in the South. What I do myself is check my local library first. Then when I find a book I really like and know I want to use I go ahead and buy myself a copy once I’ve had a good look inside. Actually though, you can preview Chapter one at the Eno Publishers website.
This book includes tables of planting suggestions for rain gardens in part-shade, sun, and shade. There are 26 different suggestions for shade, from vines, to shrubs, ground-covers and flowering perennials. Not all of the suggestions are native. Part of my rain garden is in full shade and I’ve supplemented with natives which I researched separately.
Here’s a link if you want to check the price at Amazon.com Rain Gardening in the South: Ecologically Designed Gardens for Drought, Deluge and Everything in Between.
Thank you for shring Alison!
I wish I was living in a house with a garden…
I love the way you use all resources with that method in a such a sustainable way. This is very inspiring!
Ursula, thank you for the laugh on your post (http://www.redwombatstudio.com/garden/?p=277). I never had a napkin ring and never even thought about having one. Though… I promise you that my wife did not have any thought about it neither
Aviad, thanks for reading and for your comment. Perhaps you will want to add a native plant raised bed to your roof garden. It would be really interesting to find out what kinds of insects visit a rooftop. Let me know if you need help with picking out some plants.