Rain Gardens for Beauty and Sustainability

Cities in some regions have started subsidizing rain gardens in addition to rain barrels and permeable pavement replacing non-permeable surfaces as a method of reducing run-off into the sanitary sewers and directing the water into underground aquifers. We took advantage and had one installed by a contractor for a nominal sum. They excavated down a number of feet and replaced the clay with sand and a layer of topsoil, created a berm to retain the water off the roof and planted our selection of water friendly plants from a brochure they provided (mostly w/ appearance and pollinators in mind). We are thinking of adding a second one on the opposite side of the yard to capture water that flows down a hill at the front of our property and possibly even a low area of the back yard that ponds during heavy rains (more common now).

Hi James, thanks for your account of your sinks/water gardens. Just for the sake of curiosity do you have any pics ? Maybe later on I could include your project(s) in case a study; if you are Ok with that ?

Sure Eric, I will send you some pictures. At our city house the ground is all clay and is slow to perc, so in addition to capturing run-off to allow it to soak into the aquifer, feeding the rain water from the roof into these rain gardens also help with moving water away from the house and most importantly, at least in the humid east, from the basements. The roof section that drains into our rain garden originally fed into an underground pipe that drained onto the sidewalk.

Here is a series of maintenance videos including rain gardens; Maintenance

Hey thanks James, I'll check out your vids.

Rain Garden - Aspirations and Aesthetics

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bz5HdaYnvF_/

It’s a rainy day here in North Yorkshire and I have that rainy day feeling; it’s not a bad thing.  I have just been hanging my washing in a slightly leaky enclosed area outside.  ‘So what’ I hear my imagined version of my reader say and I answer ‘I want to make a rain garden and  feel like I am outside, I want somewhere to sit where I am dry, but also I want to think up some way to expand that ‘chilled and dry with the rain all around feeling’ I want to experience the gushing, swirling, vortex feeling water movements around me. I want to be close to the water drops slowly building on the beautiful foliage around me.  I’ve had days when I have been working on something on my land and got totally soaked then taken shelter with the door of my shed open and enjoyed a brief shot of sunshine, but that’s something a little different from my aim here.  I want to see and hear the ebbs and flows driven by the atmospheric processes extending around me from above and breath in the damp refreshing air, yet be somewhat detached.