All About Rain Gardens

Rain gardens are an easy-to-maintain, beautiful, and useful addition to the home landscape, but as a relatively new theme in gardening, we’ve found that a lot of folks don’t know why they’d plant one, or even what a rain garden is!  So here are the facts, starting with a basic definition:

Rain Garden: A vegetated depression that collects stormwater runoff

Basically, think of it as an area of plantings that can withstand periodic flooding, and that have deep roots to help keep soils in place and filter excess rainwater.

So…

Why Plant a Rain Garden?

Lots of reasons!  A couple of the most important:

• Rain gardens improve water quality by reducing stormwater runoff to storm drains by collecting and treating rainwater runoff from rooftops, driveways, and other impervious surfaces
• Rain gardens are pretty AND functional
• When planted with native plants, rain gardens provide valuable habitats and food for birds and butterflies

If all that sounds great, then the next step is:

Choosing an Area and Choosing Some Plants:

• A rain garden is periodically flooded, so choose plants that can live in both wet and dry conditions
• Consider whether your site is sunny or shady when selecting plants
  • TIP: It’s easier to find sun-loving rain garden plants, so keep that in mind when planning the location of your rain garden
• Mix a variety of flowers, grasses and sedges for different shapes and textures above ground, and for different root depths below
  • TIP: Choose natives or nativars*. They have evolved in our environment over many years and are adapted to alternating periods of wet and dry.  Their deep roots absorb and filter runoff more effectively than the short roots of many turf grasses and other ornamentals
• Plant flowers in masses of colors to attract birds and butterflies

Come in to the garden center to get our list of the best native and nativar plants for Rochester rain gardens. The Blue Flag Iris (pictured here) is a great “wet zone” rain garden plant option!

If you’re intrigued but still a little hesitant to plan and install your own rain garden, we’ve got you covered.  Come to our next FREE garden workshop at Van Putte Gardens on Thursday, July 23, 2015 at 7 p.m., sponsored by the Stormwater Coalition of Monroe County.  Instructor Caroline Myers Kilmer M.S. is a stormwater consultant with over 13 years of experience in the area of stormwater and water quality, who has helped design and construct many local rain gardens.  She’ll talk about location, design, plant choice, and more, and we’re offering a special deal on in-stock rain garden plants that night so you can get planting right away!  Click here for info on how to register

*Nativar: A “near native” of various sorts. The term covers any plant that is closely related to a local native plant – usually garden cultivars or hybrids of native plants.