Special Section

Right as Rain Gardens

what they can do and why you should do it

A UWEC rain garden near  Haas Fine Arts on Water Street
 
A UWEC rain garden near Haas Fine Arts on Water Street.

I’ve spent many summers working in gardens, tending to vegetable plants and my mother’s flowers. But until recently, I had never heard of a rain garden. So I decided to look them up. Turns out, these things are pretty cool. Not only do they look great in your yard, but they do some good. 

So why make one? After doing a little research, I found that they are basically a natural way for us to protect our water resources. When rain and snow runs off our roofs, driveways, and lawns, it flows straight onto our roads, down storm drains, and into our lakes and rivers. Things like oil, pesticides, salt, transportation chemicals, and fertilizer travel with the runoff into our water supply. The runoff can also be warm water, which holds less oxygen than the cooler water that comes from the ground. Creatures, like trout, cannot survive fluctuating water temperatures. Also, runoff does not get released into the water slow and steady like ground water, so when you have large amounts of it rushing into the rivers or streams, it can cause erosion, flooding, dams formed by debris, and changes in the water’s ecosystem. 

Using a rain garden allows you to help make sure that the rush of water from runoff will slow down and hold the water for a while and eventually allow it to naturally infiltrate the ground. 

So how do you go about creating a rain garden? Well, you don’t need a lot of space to do this and you can put them in odd-shaped areas. Below are nine easy steps to create your own rain garden, and for more information feel free to visit RainGardenNetwork.org or RainGardens.org.

1. Find a Location: Place it 10 feet away from your buildings to prevent flooding. Try doing it in a natural low spot in your yard or where your downspouts or sump pump outlet can be used in order to direct the rainwater into your garden. Make sure that the location gets full or partial sunlight. 

2. Measure: If you are creating the garden in a low spot, you do not need to measure the drainage area, just make sure it is a place where water runs during a storm. If you’re capturing water from your roof or other hard surfaces, then you need to measure the drainage area of that surface and multiply it by the number associated with the type of soil you have. Sandy soil: 20%, Loam: 30-35%, and Clay: 45-60%. These numbers will ensure that the garden holds as much water as possible.

3. Design: Try creating a design on paper to make sure that you have the best appearance for your garden.

4. Choose Your Plants: Use native plants like flowers and grasses that will grow in wet and dry areas.

5. Lay Out and Dig: Lay out the shape and boundaries. Then start digging by removing the turf. Dig four to eight inches deep. Use the soil to build a berm around the garden’s edges if necessary. 

6. Prepare Soil: Put in two to three inches of compost and mix it in with the soil.

7. Plant: Place your plants where you want them to be and if you are happy with how it looks, dig away. The plants should be one foot apart.

8. Mulch: Use coarse, fibrous, shredded woodchips that won’t float or blow away. Put two to three inches worth of mulch down in order to help keep the moisture in and the weeds out. 

9. Water: After you’re done planting, water the garden every other day for two weeks if it does not rain until the garden looks like it’s growing on its own. Watering and maintenance is key.