Winter is coming, but we’re prepared for spring.
The extension of warm summer weather into November (no matter how alarming it may be—see our blog on EcoAnxiety) has allowed us to get a few more green infrastructure projects in the ground before winter. These awesome rain gardens and rock swales will help absorb rain and snow melt, limiting the amount of harmful pollutants reaching our waterways. They also support native species while decreasing neighbourhood flooding and the Urban Heat Island effect!
Installation #1
At this property, a rain garden was added to a natural low point on the property between existing plantings. It will receive water that overflows from a rain barrel with a large overflow under a high-volume downspout. During the installation, the rain barrel setup was winterized—a piece of pipe replaces the barrel so it does not get damaged from ice forming inside the barrel.
Since the garden is quite a distance from the house, a dry rock swale was used to direct water from the rain barrel’s overflow to the garden. A large piece of flagstone acts as a small bridge to maintain the commonly-used walking area.
From left to right: Rain barrel bowl created before planting; AVESI Stormwater & Landscape Solutions laying a sturdy rain barrel base; Finished rain garden and swale receiving water from adapted rain barrel setup!
What Plants are in this Garden?
- Heart-leaved Aster
- Ice Ballet Milkweed
- Pale Purple Coneflower
- Little Bluestem
- Husker Red Beardtongue
- Snowdrop Anemone
- Pennsylvania Sedge
Installation #2
This rain garden was built to fill a space between two existing gardens on this homeowners property. Our RAIN Coach visit earlier this year determined that the current previous arrangement of downspouts and grading was preventing water from flowing away from the house.
To remedy this effect, the path was cleared for the back downspout to extend further into the front yard and into a properly-graded rain garden! You can see that water from both downspouts now flows onto a stone, will disperse through the river rocks, and get filtered into the rain garden’s bowl. Any water that does not infiltrate is directed away from the house and out the opposite end of the garden, where more river rocks act as an outlet during heavy rainfall events.
From left to right: Old downspout arrangement; New downspout arrangement; New rain garden and outlet!
What Plants are in this Garden?
- Marginal Shield Fern
- Blue-eyed Grass
- Great Blue Lobelia
- Pale Purple Coneflower
- Hairy Beardtongue
- White Turtlehead
- Pennsylvania Sedge
Installation #3
This installation involved the creation of a rain garden between two higher existing garden beds. The challenge with this installation was in directing the water from the downspouts to the new rain garden.
The homeowner had rain barrels on the downspout, but since there is a path through the garden to the back of the house, it could not be blocked with an overflow hose leading to the garden. Additionally, the grading of the property did not allow for the swale to start closer to the house and run under the path, as was possible with Installation #1! Instead, the downspout was creatively re-directed over a trellis, where it empties into their new green infrastructure. The barrels will be moved to the downspouts on the back of the house, to be used for watering vegetable gardens!
From left to right: AVESI Stormwater & Landscape Solutions taking up the sod; Adapted downspout arrangement, swale and rain garden; Dry rock swale!
What Plants are in this Garden?
- Leatherleaf Sedge
- Fox Sedge
- Little Bluestem
- Hoary Vervain
- Pearly Everlasting
- White Hearth Aster
- Husker Red Beardtongue
Want to know more about rain gardens? Check out these blog posts:
