Home and Living

Rain gardens have only recently caught on as natural landscaping, and frequently, they are touted for their ability to absorb storm water and reduce runoff. A rain garden is a shallow, constructed depression that is planted with deep-rooted native plants and grasses. It is located to receive runoff from hard surfaces such as a roof via a downspout, a sidewalk and driveway. Rain gardens slow down the rush of water from these hard surfaces holds the water for a short period of time and allows it to naturally infiltrate into the ground. A rain garden can be thought of as a personal water quality system because it filters the runoff from your roof and lawn and recharges the groundwater. Rain gardens can be small, formal, homeowner style gardens, large complex bioretention gardens, or anywhere in between.
Rain gardens are a beautiful and colorful way for homeowners, businesses and municipalities to help ease storm water problems. There is a growing trend by municipalities and homeowners to incorporate natural processes to help relieve flooding and pollution. A rain garden also conserves municipal water resources by reducing the need for irrigation.
There are two basic reasons for the popularity of rain gardens: ecological and horticultural. Ecologically, rain gardens offer every home, building, parking lot or disturbed site a chance to capture, intercept, filter, and even recycle its own storm water runoff, so that polluted water doesn’t run directly into streams, rivers and lakes. Horticulturally, rain gardens offer an ornamental, low maintenance solution to problem-wet areas and provide for overflow from heavy rains. A small culvert or swale may be used to move excess water to another rain garden. There may even be a community rain garden that receives water from a number of nearby properties. Loosening compacted soil will increase infiltration. Infiltration will also increase with addition of humus, or a mix of humus and sand.

What makes a garden a rain garden? All it takes is a few simple steps in the following three areas:

Landscaping: Rain gardens are designed with a dip at the center to collect rain and snow melt. Any degree of indentation is useful, from slight dips made with your garden trowel to large swales created by professional landscapers. Neatly trimmed shrubs, a crisp edge of lawn, stone retaining walls and other devices can be used to keep garden edges neat and visually appealing.

Location: Strategic placement next to hard surfaces such as alleys, sidewalks, and driveways and under gutters makes your rain garden effective. In the following you will find descriptions for how rain gardens can work in the front, side and back sections of your property.

Plant Choices: Hardy native species that thrive in the ecosystem without chemical fertilizers and pesticides are the best choices. Many rain gardens feature shrubs as well as wild flowers and grasses. As a rule, the less “turf” on lawns, the better it is from a water quality standpoint — turf-style lawns create a harder surface that does not absorb water as readily as garden areas. Also, turf-style lawns often require chemical treatments and extra water to look uniform. Yards that feature native plants, grasses and shrubs are much easier to maintain. When planned for biodiversity, a rain garden can host scores of colorful native wetland and wet prairie plants. The long list could include staples such as Torrey’s rush, sweet flag, blue flag iris, marsh milkweed, cardinal flower, fox sedge, marsh blazing star, great blue lobelia, New England aster, meadow rue, ironweed; and, in shallow water along pond edges, species such as bulrush, pickerelweed, duck potato, arrowhead, and water lily.
Rain is natural; storm water isn’t. Government studies have shown that up to 70% of the pollution in our streams, rivers and lakes is carried there by storm water. Although most people never think about storm water, about half of the pollution that storm water carries comes from things they do in the yards and gardens. Planting a rain garden may seem like a small thing, but if you calculate the amount of rain that runs off your roof, you would be very surprised. That rain is supposed to soak into the ground, but instead heads down the street to the storm drain, carrying pollution with it. Keeping rain where it falls, by putting it into a beautiful rain garden, is a natural solution. You not only get a lovely garden out of it, you have the added benefit of helping protect our rivers, streams and lakes from storm water pollution. You can be part of a beautiful solution!