Loving Nature's Garden

5 Tips to Designing a Successful Rain Garden

August 24th, 2010 | 6 comments |

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.

Nature Mom Brings Out the Best

August 19th, 2010 | 9 comments - (Comments are closed) |

“There has never been a more important time for our children to understand their connection with nature and to learn how to protect the Earth. Indeed their very survival, along with that of every other creature around us, depends on it.” Alison Kerr, 2010

Do you remember wild outdoor adventures you played as a kid? Children today spend more time playing indoors than at any time in the whole of human history. And it is not good for them. What you do in your garden is really important to the next generation.

America’s Great Outdoors

On April 16th, 2010 President Barack Obama signed a memorandum establishing the America’s Great Outdoors Initiative. It was a landmark move in the quest to reconnect kids to nature.

But President Obama’s initiative could be said to be of little consequence to Marghanita Hughes, one of the active adult players in the #playoutdoors movement. Not only does Marghanita live in Canada, but she has been publishing books which connect kids to nature since 2007.

The Little Humbugs

I first met Marghanita online during 2009 under her @littlehumbugs Twitter name. I was new to nature blogging and seeking out connections with others who believe in the power and joy which comes from everyday interaction with wild things in our gardens and communities.

I have to admit that at first I thought the name Little Humbugs was a bit quirky – aren’t humbugs a type of striped hard candy? And, being new to Twitter, I was very wary of being pitched at by marketers. But Marghanita immediately distinguished herself as a generous and supportive mom and artist who really cares. Indeed, I’d say she is an exemplary person.

Many of us grew up believing in the importance of nature and our place in the world. Marghanita Hughes is one of these people. But Marghanita goes far beyond simply admiring nature.

Protectors of Mother Nature

Marghanita blends her love of nature and children, her knowledge of the forest, and her considerable artistic abilities to create her Little Humbugs books, her environmentally conscious soft toys, and her inspiring website and blog.

“We’re the little humbugs, protectors of Mother Nature.” Jasmine and her friends Chloe, Chou, Lucy and Nika are Little Humbugs. They are magical creatures: like you, but with just a little extra. They are Butterfly Girls and Dragonfly Boys and they talk to the animals and birds of the forest; they are the protectors of nature. Through the words and illustrations of Marghanita Hughes they share their stories.

Bringing Out the Best

Often it is the little things that count. Marghanita takes this principle into the production of her products. Little Humbugs chapter books and picture books are printed in Canada on 100% post consumer waste paper (chlorine free and old growth free). They are printed using vegetable based inks. They are bright, engaging, and attractive to kids.

Little Humbugs Dolls come with minimal packaging and are stuffed with 100% recycled content, made from recycled plastic bottles. And Kati, the Canadian Doll, gives back to Monarch conservation in Mexico through Global Releaf.

And Marghanita brings out the best in the people she touches through her own writing and her connections with both kids and adults. Marghanita’s blog is an absolute inspiration, full of gorgeous, but manageable, nature craft ideas, beautiful stories of wild things in Canada, gardening tips, tales of her own family, and well-crafted guest posts from experts in nature, gardening and the outdoors. She is an artist through-and-through.

So, don’t wait, go and visit Marghanita and her Little Humbugs and get inspired to strengthen your connection with nature. You might even rediscover your inner child!

Gardening Patience Brings Rewards

August 17th, 2010 | 4 comments - (Comments are closed) |

very cute, skinny, hummingbird with green head

Hummingbird_0001 by striderp64

There is no patience like that of a gardener, unless it’s the patience of a parent.

Both kids and gardens take a long time to truly bloom; there is really no substitute for the time and energy you need to invest to do the job properly.

You’ll Be Rewarded

While your garden, just like your kids, may never end up being precisely the way you first dream of as a new gardener, there will be plenty of rewards along the way.

Story of a Rain Garden

I first heard about rain gardens several years ago. And for the last 11 years I’ve dreamed of seeing a hummingbird in my garden. So, last fall I was out in the garden hauling on ropes and pulling down cedar trees to make space for a rain garden and to let in the sun to plant something for the hummingbirds.

Then today I was out in the garden admiring the red blooms on the Lobelia cardinalis (cardinal flower), just thinking how neat it would be if a hummingbird flew in, but not expecting to see one, when zoom, in flew the cutest, little, skinny, ruby-throated hummingbird. He looked very like the one pictured above.

Rain Garden - August 2010

Just Right Imperfect

Now, my rain garden doesn’t exactly look picture perfect. It’s not something you’d see on the cover of a gardening magazine.

But my garden was just perfect for that skinny little hummingbird who needed a few nectar-rich, trumpet-shaped, red blooms to feed on.

Do Just One Thing

My friend Carole Brown is a great believer in doing just one thing for wildlife in your garden. These few blooms in my rain garden may not look like much, but to that little hummingbird they may have made all the difference in the world.

Don’t worry about building a massive, beautiful, picture-perfect native flower garden. Do new parents put off feeding their kids until they are perfect parents? I hope not! Don’t be put off by the covers of gardening magazines. It doesn’t matter that you don’t really know what you are doing yet. The butterflies and hummingbirds won’t know the difference, or care. Just be open to adding one or two native plants to your garden. After that you will surely want more!

The most important thing is to be patient with yourself. Start somewhere and little by little you will start to reap the rewards.