We decided to build a rain garden next to our garage in our backyard, complete with a rain barrel. Our city has a great rain garden program. If you get your garden pre-approved, you can get a free rain barrel, reimbursed for every square foot and reduced stormwater fees. Score!
Why plant a rain garden? (according to the City of Rock Island)
- Reduce flooding
- Absorb pollutants
- Sustain wildlife
There is lots of information out there about rain gardens, so I won’t try to re-hash it (Google is your friend). But, here are the basics of what we did –
- Dig out the area at least 2 inches (this creates a little area for rain water to be held, instead of going into storm water drains). We only went 2 inches deep, but you can also go deeper.
- Choose plants (preferable native plants) that can stand water.
- Plant and mulch.
- Include a rain barrel to catch water, if you would like. We plan to use this rainwater for the garden and for our veggie garden via the spiggot.
Here’s our progress of this area.
After tearing down the old garage and laying the foundation for the new garage.
Ryan working on the grass next to that garage.
Here are the plants we chose.
All these plants were purchased from a local woman who grows native plants.
And now it’s all planted and mulched. (I understand you probably cannot see most of the plants because they are so small… but they will grow over time. I added the ferns for some height.)
It’s getting there… and I love it.What do you think?
Looks wonderful. Love the rain barrel idea, and the plants you picked are perfect. Can’t wait to see how it looks a month from now.
very nice, very nice. What a great way to use the rain water. Can’t wait to see how it looks when they’re all grown up : ) thanks again for the Facebook message!
Wow looks great!!
Katie – we haven’t had a hard rain yet, but I expect to only get a little standing water. It should absorb into the ground and into the mulch. But, the deeper it is, the more rain will be held and the less will go into stormwater drains.
wow…so the rain garden…does it have standing water in it? I guess I am a little confused on what it is exactly. Did I miss the link? It sounds really cool but I guess I am outta the landscaping loop 🙂
Oh, I have been wanting to get some rain barrels… I wish our city gave them out free!!
I am learning so much from reading your blog. Good thing I have a cousin like you!