Gardening

May 21, 2024

Top Ten Garden Tips: Tip Two

Rain Gardens are incredibly practical and beautiful ways to deal with water issues in your yard while helping to preserve a healthy water supply and habitat for animal life.

A Rain Garden is basically a tub shaped garden into which rain water is redirected. The plants in a rain garden help to process water runoff back into the ground while purifying it of any pollutants it may have picked up. Species of plants are chosen and located based on the amount of water that is expected to pool in the bed when it rains and their location within the bed. In other words, water loving plants are placed in the center of the bed, with more dry-loving plants lining the sides. Native plants that can handle both flood and drought are often prioritized for all areas unless the ground is constantly wet.

The initial work of installing a rain garden is substantial, but not significantly more involved than installing any other garden bed. Once the garden is fully established, it is remarkably low maintenance and demands few resources. The plants are arranged so that, once they are fully grown, they take over the space in the garden. This eliminates opportunities for pesky weeds to grow. Additionally, because the garden bed self-waters during rains and the plants selected can tolerate drought, these gardens require very little extra watering, particularly if planted in the fall or early spring. This conserves water, limits water bills and saves gardeners time.

I began to work on my rain garden last fall when I recognized that the lawn was particularly dry and I did not want to be spending time and excessive money keeping it alive. However since the home is in the center of the town and beach activity, something needed to be done to enhance the curb appeal. In addition, since the house is right up the hill from one of the Great Lakes, I did not want pollution from our property running down the hill and into the lake. Finally, I did not like how close to the house our downspouts dumped, though this was necessary because of the narrow lot.

You can see the grass that I was concerned about in this picture. On the right, the grass nearly died in the summer heat. On the left, the lawn was doing better, but still quite dry, especially after a day of full sun.

I was unsure of whether I should put a rain garden on both sides of the walkway, or only on the left side, which had easy access to an additional downspout and would be able to filter the water from both our covered porch and half of our roof. The decision was made for me when I called 8-1-1 to find out what was underneath the lawn.

As you can see, the inspectors came out and found that our gas line runs almost through the middle of the right-hand yard. Since rain gardens require a significant amount of digging, placing one here was out of the question.

Once I had determined where to put the garden, it was time to start designing it! I used a piece of graph paper having each square to represent a square foot. I also cheated a bit and did some measurements of the garden and roof using google maps since we had not yet moved into the home. By planning it this way, I started out with a wealth of information: how much surface area would be draining into the bed, how much soil I would need, how much mulch to buy, and best of all, how many plants I would require.

Once I knew the surface area of both the garden and my drainage area (the roof) I needed one additional piece of information: how quickly did my soil drain? To find out, I had to do a percolation test. I dug a small hole in the middle of the where I intended to dig that went down about two feet. I filled the hole with water, waited for it to drain and then filled it again. Then I waited for the hole to empty. In my case, the hole did not drain within twenty-four hours so I knew that I needed to dig the garden bed to be three inches deep. I also knew that the garden needed to have an area that was at least 30% of the area of the drainage area. If it had drained within the twenty-four hour period, I would have needed to dig four to six inches deep and make the area of the garden 20% of the area of the drainage area. I am not sure why it works like this, but whoever came up with the calculations seems to have done a good job!

Due to space constraints (the garden had to be at least 10 feet from my yard and my property line), my bed was a little too small for the drainage area. However, the numbers were awfully close and, since the downspouts were basically just dropping water between the foundations of two homes, redirecting the water to the front yard would only help to solve the problem. If there was a risk of water running towards my foundation, the sidewalk, or the neighbors yard, I would have had to rethink my plans – one of a rain gardener’s goals is to “do no harm.”

Fortunately, I got the go ahead from my instructors and could recruit my kids for the garden’s installation!

We started in mid-fall. I began by laying down tape to let us know exactly where the garden should go. Then we began the exhausting task of removing the sod – but we didn’t throw it out – we saved it on a tarp for later. Once we had dug down the required three inches and made sure that the bed was completely flat in the center, it was time to start building up the berm that runs along the edges of the bed. The berm is important because it keeps the water in the pool area long enough that the plants can process it. The berm surrounds all of the sides of the garden except for a small gap where the water enters (this should be slightly elevated and flow down hill towards the garden) and the overflow area (this is about a foot wide lowering of the berm which will direct water in the right direction if the bed becomes too full). I lined the entry and overflow areas with gravel, then piled the sod we had removed from the garden along its edges to create the berm. My kids enjoyed running around to pack it down and by the spring, the grass had grown in to hold it all together.

Then it was time to add the soil back into the bed. We added four inches of topsoil followed by two inches of compost and then mixed it. This filled the bed with soil that was now loose and ready to hold water and plant roots. We topped the area with a layer of mulch so that we would not have to mulch around the plants and to help hold water in the soil. Finally, it was time to lay the plants out and see how they would look in the places I had planned for them! Once I was satisfied, we started digging and plopping those shoots into their spots.

Here you can see the newly planted garden. The stepping stones allow us to access the garden when it fills with water and is wet. In the far back corner you can see the gravel for the water inlet.

The garden did well over the winter and was surprisingly happy come spring. In fact, during the spring, it was only manually watered once and that was just because I was watering the newly installed bed on the other side of the yard and decided to do both. Basically, it has self-watered even with some dry 80 degree weather! There are a significant number of weeds this year since it has not yet filled in, but it will get easier each year. I expect that by year three it will be basically on autopilot.

The garden as it looks today, seven months after planting. It is really starting to grow after the winter pause and slowly filling in the empty spaces. This year it will still be laying down roots and establishing itself but by next year it should look like its always been there.

As you can see, a true rain garden takes a lot of work to set up and has some very specific site requirements that don’t always work. For example, in part of our yard, the ground was a mud pit in the spring, hard as rock in the summer, and full of roots all year round. The roots prevented me from installing a true rain garden in that spot, since the required digging would damage the trees. Regrading the area wasn’t an option since it would force water back into our foundation or onto our neighbors yard. However, by digging down slightly to redirect the majority of water into shallow basins that I lined with rock I was able to turn these dangerously tempting play areas into delightful and intentional looking garden spaces that boast plants that thrive in that environment.

The more formal bed which contains a statue and bird bath
along with the rock pool and plantings.
My more wild looking woodland bed and rock pond. The pachysandra is not native unfortunately, but was already there and when I drained the surrounding area slightly, it filled right in creating this peaceful setting!

So, if you aren’t looking to build a certified rain garden, there is no reason why you can’t use a less structured method to direct, pool and utilize water in problematic patches of your yard! It will likely require significantly less work and still offer you beautiful and practical landscaping options.

May 21, 2024

Top Ten Garden Tips: Tip One

I was strolling through my garden today taking pictures and I thought, why don’t I combine my favorite two solo activities (writing and gardening) and answer some of the questions my friends have been asking me lately? So when the heat of the noon sun drove me inside, that is exactly what I did!

I have to be honest, none of these ideas are things I came up with on my own. They are simply my favorite strategies that I have gleaned from a variety of classes, articles and in-person tips from fellow plantheads. Some of them are mainstream ideas, others not so much. My own yard has gone from a traditional suburban lawn and shrub garden (with some herbs thrown in) to a Certified Wildlife Habitat with an official (and some unofficial) Rain Gardens thrown in.

As much as possible, I try to be cognizant of the ways that my yardwork impacts native species around us and to use my yard to heal our earth. If my garden is blooming, buzzing with insect life, and filled with birds and other wildlife, then I consider myself to be successful. So in some ways, I am a green gardener. I use organic, plant based lawn care products (though my husband doesn’t always follow my lead), and we avoid invasive plants or plant them in places we know they cannot spread. However, I will say I am not hardcore enough to rip out (or refuse to buy) some beloved non-native plants as long as they don’t hurt our local ecosystem.

Also, in the garden, I believe less is more because less money and less labor means more time and resources to enjoy it! So if there are environmentally sound ways to reduce my costs and efforts, I am all for it.

Now that you know my overarching gardening philosophy, here is my first tip:

1. Green Mulching
When we first moved into our home, I spent days weeding each part of our garden. By the time I finished our yard, it was time to start weeding the first patch again. As I was breaking my back (literally) doing this, I also made the mistake of pulling out a lot of volunteer plants that I could have kept if I hadn’t been so narrow in my plant selection. As a result of my over-zealous weeding, we ended up with some major foundation water issues – all because I removed some plants during hours of laborious weeding!

The plants haven’t fully grown into this bed yet and you can still see some residual wood mulch under my leaf mulch. Still, considering that this patch took a day to weed in the past, Green Mulching has helped a lot.

Needless to say, the garden that I loved was quickly becoming my dreaded enemy and I couldn’t help feeling betrayed by the innocent looking rhododendrons staring at me through my front windows.

Then I discovered Green Mulching and, at the risk of sounding like a salesperson, it has been the best time saver/garden improvement I have found. The idea behind green mulching is to plant so many plants, so close together that there is no room left in your garden for the weeds to grow. This may sound chaotic but done properly, you can use layering (see a later tip) and ground cover plants to save literally days of your life (and years off of your back)! As an added bonus, telling people you are green mulching gives you an excuse to keep adding to your growing garden diversity and who among us does not need a reason to steer their car into the garden center parking lot?

This area took me hours to weed before I began green mulching and its right by my front door so I need it to look good! You can see a few tufts of grass that need to be pulled but that is all that I have to do now. In total, this section takes a minute or two to weed a few times a growing season.

As if those are not reasons enough to consider this method, Green Mulching is also more eco-friendly than more traditional mulching methods. Here’s why:

  1. Traditional Wood Mulches were originally not a terrible idea from an environmental standpoint. People have been mulching gardens for a long time using biodegradable materials like leaf matter and straw. In the last century, paper factories and other industries that utilized wood would sell off their wood waste to be used in garden beds. It eventually broke down and returned necessary nutrients to the garden soils that had been depleted by plant growth. In this setting, as long as no harmful chemicals were used to treat the wood, it was a great idea. However, once everyone started using mulch, the demand exceeded factory waste and wood mulch became an industry of its own. As a result, the mulch we buy at the store comes with real environmental (and financial) costs.
  2. Stone and Rubber Mulches, while longer lasting alternatives than wood mulch, have their own potential drawbacks. Most importantly, unlike wood and other types of biodegradable mulches, they don’t break down over time. As a result, the plant bed soil is depleted of nutrients overtime and these nutrients are not returned to it through the natural decomposition of dead plant matter. As a result, beds that use non-decaying mulches eventually lose some of their fertility and may require additional fertilizers and compost.

Green Mulching, on the other hand, allows gardeners to work with natural plant cycles while growing plants that benefit the environment. Following the natural pattern eliminates the unnecessary work that goes along with fighting nature. This is particularly true for planters who choose to leave plant matter standing over winter, compost dead plants, and mulch with leaves in the fall. Green Mulched beds are continuously refreshed with nutrients from previous plants. In addition, the dense leaf cover provides shade and holds moisture in the soil, limiting the amount of watering required, and the roots of plants help keep soil from eroding or compacting. And, of course, you save time by crowding out the weeds!