How To Design A Rain Garden
This old house landscape contractor roger cook shows how to use rainwater to sustain a lush garden.
How to design a rain garden. If your location s slope is less than 4 you ll want a rain garden between 3 5 inches 7 6 12 7 centimeters deep. Plan your garden s depth based on its slope. Following the established outline for the garden dig down and remove six to eight inches of the soil with the deepest part of the garden located in the center.
How to design a rain garden the rain garden may need more care during the first year as plants begin to set up their root systems. Take a good look at your yard. If the soil is compact a pick ax might be best used to break up the soil before removing it with shovel and wheelbarrow.
For slopes between 5 7 create a rain garden 6 7 inches 15 3 17 8 centimeters deep. Rain gardens are usually between 4 8 inches 10 2 20 3 centimeters deep. See below for a shopping list and tools subscribe to th.
Most commonly found in rain gardens are deep rooted native shrubs perennials and flowers that are planted in a small depression in the ground usually formed by a natural slope in the land. If on a slope this berm goes on the lower end of the slope. If it works with your overall design create a little rain garden for each downspout.
During droughts water the plants deeply but not very frequently for correct development of healthy roots. For both the plant s health and the aesthetics it is important to keep the plants free of weed. Rain garden or rainwater garden is a garden or park in the form of a basin that collects rainwater and runoff from stormwater that is designed to capture and filter the water runoff with intermediary media in the form of plants slowing down stormwater when it is sent giving stormwater more time to be absorbed and filtered slowly into the ground.
Planted with amsonia and iris pseudacorus which tolerate periodic flooding. Clay soils work best to make a rain garden because they slow the percolation of water holding water while allowing it to slowly drain. Soil removed from the rain garden can be mounded up around 3 4 of the bed.