RAIN GARDENS

You may think it a silly time of year to be writing about “rain gardens” with autumn, winter and snow on the horizon, but I figured if I planted the idea in your brain now, it would have time to germinate over the winter and be your first project of the vernal equinox.

Maybe you’ve never heard of a “rain garden” and once I tell you about them, I’ll remove the double quotes.

Rain gardens are a way to divert and direct the water in your yard to a place that can soak it up and use it to nurture a specific type of plants and prevent runoff and loss of topsoil. They can alleviate maintenance issues in soggy spots in the yard, working with nature instead of against it through water-loving, well adapted plants. Rain gardens can be a “nature-based” solution to reducing risk of local flooding, providing benefits at multiple scales. How can you not love the concept of “Nature Based”?

Rain Gardens are an excellent way to handle storm water while creating native habitat, but it’s important that they go in the right place. Contrary to popular belief, rain gardens are not always well suited in existing wet areas. Instead, it’s often advisable to choose an area with good drainage to which you can divert the flow of run-off water. Your rain garden may need to be excavated a few feet and the drainage may need to be improved. From there, you can divert water from roof gutters, rain barrels, or areas that accumulate water to the depression you've created for the new rain garden. 

While brainstorming about your plant selections, it's important to remember that sometimes the rain garden will be holding many inches of water and other times will be fairly dry. The plants you’re looking for need to be able to handle these fluctuating conditions as well. Water loving wetland plants may not always be the perfect choices since they like to be in saturated soils constantly. Plants that like drier conditions may not be able to take the deluge of water that follows rain or snow melt events. 

Luckily, there are lots of native plants to choose from that are both beautiful and functional. Plants like Iris versicolor, “Blue Flag Iris”, Aster novae-angliae, “New England Aster”, Heliopsis helianthoides, “False Sunflower”, Pycnanthemum muticum, “Mountain Mint”,   Schizachyrium scoparium, “Little Bluestem”, Eutrochium purpureum, “Purple Joe-Pye”, Hibiscus moscheutos, “Swamp Rose Mallow”, and even Sambucus species, “Elderberry” all work well in a rain garden and are easily obtainable on line. 

There’s so much great rain garden info on line, just google rain gardens and you will be guided to the experts and with that advice, there’s almost no way that you won’t be successful in creating not only an attractive plant habitat, but a utilitarian one as well.

Till our next Horticultural Outing, Peace Out, Glickster.

www.sunfarm.com