Rain gardens are attractive landscape features

It’s that time of the year when your home gets drenched in incessant rains and your driveways are sloshed with down pouring and rushing water. With a little effort and creativity, all that rainwater being wasted into the ground can be put to good use.

Rain gardens are attractive landscape features that are designed to capture the runaway rainwater and use it to beautify your yard. They act as a natural filtering, enabling the storm water to filter into the soil and nourish your plants.

4 Steps to Create a Rain Garden

Location: Choose a suitable location that is likely to get exposed to rainfall, like the courtyard or the flower beds. Observing the areas before and after rains is a good way to find out the perfect location. Take note of where the water flows down from and where it accumulates. The best spot is an existing depression in the ground where the water would collect and filter down into the soil over time.

Soil Test: Once the location is fixed, dig a hole of 6-inches depth to determine the type of soil and water permeability. Fill the hole with water and note the time it takes to drain. If it disappears within 24 hours, then the soil is suitably permeable.

Determine the Size and Shape: Decide how big a rain garden you need depending on the amount of storm water you are hit with. Calculate the depth, surface area and shape of the rain garden before digging it. A typical rain garden has a depth of 3-12 inches, and is dug in a bean-shape with the long side facing upslope so that maximum quantity of water is collected.

Plants for Rain garden:When choosing plants for your rain garden, opt for local over exotic species, is always better as they are adapted to the local conditions, have deep root systems and are perennial. Remove the existing vegetation to reduce plant competition. Addition of 2-4 inches of mulch will help keep erosion and pollutants at bay and maintain the moisture.

Benefits of Rain Garden

Apart from being a thing of beauty on your lawn, rain gardens offer other ecological benefits as below:

• It reduces flooding and water damage.
• It provides a niche for butterflies and birds as well as for colorful blossoms, making your home cheerful.
• It removes pollutants from storm water and replenishes the ground water.
• It helps in absorbing more water than traditional lawns.

Maintaining the Rain Garden

Rain gardens don’t need pesticides and fertilizers or frequent watering except for the first year when you have to add an inch of water every week. Also, during early spring and fall, you should weed, clean-up and re-mulch the garden.Remove any dead leaves or other materials while replenishing the mulch in spring, and make sure that the inflow and outflow conveyances are not blocked by debris.