Update: Major news/changes to plans will be mentioned in the next installment--and to assuage peoples fears I am i noticing the comments, I am quite an experienced landscaper/gardener with a number of years working a member or UW-Eau Claire grounds crew and also through my own gardening. Here is a link to defunct blog I started a while back: http://mngarden.blogspot.com/
A little over a week ago I wrote a dairy about my exploration of building and growing a rain garden on the property I am currently renting. While writing the piece it struck me that such a process might make for a good series of diaries while I continued to explore and ultimately build out the garden—your comments and recommendations confirmed my thoughts. With that, this is the second installment in that series.
Before the first of two classes about building rain gardens, last week, I was quite pressed for time. I got out of work at 3:30 pm and had to meet a representative of Take Action Minnesota (a progressive political organization I recent became involved with). This meeting was really just a meet and greet , for a member of Take Action to get to know newer members/volunteers in the organization. It was a good chat, lasted about an hour and half and was really interesting thinking about answering the questions posed to me by the Take Action representative. However, I knew I had the rain garden class at 6:30 and still had to get home to feed my dog and let her out long enough to do her…ah…duty.
I was also supposed to be meeting with a field representative from the watershed organization to assess my yard for the appropriate placement, size, and type of rain garden to install. He canceled due to a double booking, luckily, or unluckily as it means postponing my garden until I meet him. I am working on rescheduling that meeting—hopefully it will happen soon.
Last night was the second rain garden class—though the class had to be rushed because the community center closed at 8:00 pm. Though rushed, the presenters opened the last hour of the class to individually discuss attendee’s ideas of placement and type of garden, either confirming or suggesting locations based on arial photo provided in the previous class. The presenter I spoke confirmed my thoughts about where to put my garden and offered suggestions to balance the yard, given my ideas.
The first thing to consider when thinking of building a rain garden is how rain water flows and runs off your property. In my case, I have a single gabled roof so rain water drains off either side of the roof into gutters which flow toward the front of the house. I have very little impervious area, beyond the house in my yard. Thus, most of the rain water runoff is directed toward the street and ultimately the storm drains—which, in my city drain directly into the waterways, with no rain water treatment.
This is how my yard lays out:
After determining how rain water is running off my house and flowing into the storm water system, I determined the front yard was the best place to build my garden. Additionally, as I mentioned last week, when it rains I have issues with water in my basement—on the east wall (or right side when facing the front of the house). So, my thought was to divert water from that side of the house to rain garden built approximately ten feet away from the house.
My front yard is split in two equal squares by a walkway leading the front porch door. Facing the front of the house, the square on the left is further divided by the gas and water lines feeding into the house. Given the gas and water line positions, my decision to build my garden on the east side of my front walk is perfect.
However, this is going to be a serious project for the following reasons:
1) I will need to buy and install a rain water capture box (placed directly below my down spouts).
2) I will need to dig an approximately 12 inch deep by 20 foot long trench to install piping attached to the capture box in order to divert the rain water from the east side of the house to my garden.
3) I will need to use a sod cutter to remove the grass from the area to be excavated—I hope to reuse the sod in areas on my back yard—in particular an area completely overrun with creeping Charlie (till up the area and lay the sod down, water profusely).
4) I will need to excavate a quite a bit of dirt from the front yard, as the yard slopes dramatically toward the sidewalk—I will be removing dirt from any area approximately 13 ft x 15 ft and probably about 2 ft deep. The nice thing is that I can use this dirt to re-grade the yard on the east side of the house to further deter flooding in the basement.
5) I will need to install a retaining wall on the north, west and east sides of the garden area—the south is side walk and I will have a small buffer garden between the edge of the rain garden and side walk to serve as an overflow area.
While none of this is impossible, I may be begging the helps of some friends to help with the excavation and re-grading elements—that’s a lot of earth to move for one person—as well as the retaining wall as I have not installed one before.
Once these items are completed, I can begin to consider plants and plant placement. But, let’s stick to one thing at a time. First, I need to get the watershed guy out to sign off on my idea, then I need to apply for the grant money (which will cover materials and equipment rentals), and finally I need to break ground. The planting is the easy and most enjoyable part.
Finally, once the planting is complete I will consider how to balance the two halves of my front yard by planting a number of flowering shrubs on the west (or left side if facing the house) so my yard doesn’t look off balance.
A lot of work, but I am looking forward to it, and I think I get some help from some green-thumb friends.
Until next week, keep greening it up.