rain gardening

For the past few weekends, I've been working on putting in a little rain garden near the downspout. That area constantly floods when I have rain, particularly if it rains for an extended period of time - or heavily - and it never fails to flood the back porch as well. Briefly tried a rain barrel there but the location is not ideal - neither in terms of convenience or for the obstructed view!

The idea behind the rain garden is to dig out a depression and then fill it with plants and other elements that allow the excess water to soak into the ground, rather than simply eroding away the topsoil. They can be as elaborate or simple as you want to make them. (I just read about a cool system they have at the Permaculture Institute of Northern California that uses greywater in a similar way, eventually ending in a pond, complete with ducks & koi. )

Step 1:
Dug out the area for the rain garden. Not as extensive as I would've liked due to the inevitable roots in my way! For the most part, I filled the area with ferns & other plants transplanted from another corner of the yard but I did pick up some lilies to include.

lillies purchased from a local garden fairtransplanted ferns

Step 2:
Sheet mulched the surrounding area to build up the soil and allow me to plant ground cover. This should further define the rain garden area and also prevent dirt from filling the area back up. The added mulch in the rain garden itself should help hold in water for the water-loving plants - plus it makes it less apparent that it is actually about a foot deeper than the rest.

so far the transplants seem to be holding up!

Step 3:
The first rain since the garden has been installed! Seems to be working. Water has collected into the depressions and NO flooding on the porch, despite almost continuous rain since last night. Hooray! Now I just need the area to fill in with greenery and hopefully it will be a beautiful addition to the garden.