Rain Gardens-Nature's Water Filters

Designing and building a rain garden area is actually quite simple. All you need to do is select a low spot or a shallow depression in your lawn or garden area, then create a way for storm water to get into it when it rains or snow melts. As the runoff water sits in the bowl it slowly dissipates back into the surrounding soil instead of running away from the area.

Most rain gardens return storm water to the soil (recharge) within a few hours, so they don't create a breeding area for mosquitoes. Unlike storage systems including cisterns, detention ponds and rain water harvesters, rain gardens are designed to dry out between rain storms. Part of your rain garden design construction plan will be to amend the soil so that it's light and will drain within a day or two.

As the ground thaws in the spring time, our backyard rain garden collects snow melt and driveway runoff. It filters the drainage water it and lets it be absorbed back into the surrounding soil and mulched planting areas. In a month or two, perennial native plants will grow lush and fill in the mulched areas around the raised edges (berms). The plants will take up captured storm water from the rain garden all summer long.

An underground pipe (concealed by the clay pot at the upper right corner) channels storm water runoff collected from the upper driveway area 100 feet away down through the yard and into the rain garden. The next photo (below) shows the same rain garden as it looks in June.

During the growing season - May through October in our climate - the lush native and perennial plants that grow on the berms around our rain garden nearly hide the shallow water collection area that captures stormwater runoff from our driveway parking area.

In the middle of this garden there's a small depressed area that collects rainwater runoff then filters it back into the soil to the plants around it.

An underground pipe disguised by a clay pot - barely visible in the upper middle of this photo - brings in collected storm water from the upper driveway area (shown above the wall in the very back part of this photo). To prevent overflow and standing water in the rain garden, another pipe located at the left side channels excess water flow out of the rain garden and into our back yard fish pond about 200 feet away.

Our rain garden attracts a variety of wild creatures to our garden. So far we've been visited by many birds, butterflies, beneficial insects and bees plus salamanders, toads, frogs, turtles, ducks, wild turkeys, pheasant, deer, chipmunks, squirrels, crayfish, snails, and several types of non-poisonous snakes. This green frog was hiding in a patch of succulents that grow along a French drain that feeds water to our garden pond. It's a favorite spot for him to catch insects, and it's also a natural birdbath and watering hole for small animals who visit our garden.

If you have a low-lying area in your garden or near your driveway or a space in your lawn that gets wet after a heavy rain, you've got a naturally right spot for a rain garden. Our new home in Vermont has heavy clay soil and the lot slopes from back to front. We have a few wet spots in the existing yard that we've identified as rain garden spots. I'll share over the next few months our step-by-step process for creating a rain garden that will help drain our yard and make a beautiful focal point near our home.