Rain Gardens

Last week I went to a free class on something called 'Rain Gardens.'  If you live in the Seattle area, these classes are being offered throughout the area for the next few weeks.  For a list of upcoming workshops, you can go here: http://www.stewardshippartners.org/raingarden_workshops.html

Rain gardens are intentionally concave garden sites that are dug into the ground.  They are formed in such a way that they capture run off from the home, as well as funnel water away from undesirable areas (like your foundation) and move water into safer more usable space.  Then plants are planted in the basin that love water, with other plants in the upper "level" of the garden that like water, but need a bit of drying out time.

It seemed remarkably simple, yet kind of brilliant.  I love the idea of taking something that solves a physical problem, and making it beautiful as well.


Rain Garden featured at https://rainwise.seattle.gov/

The presentation started off with 6 adorable girls from a nearby school in Burien, St. Francis of Assisi.  They gave a presentation on an area on their school grounds that is collecting standing water, which was threatening the foundation to their gym.  They set about creating a very large rain garden, dug up the trenches, added some nice spots for people to sit, read some poetry or have some lunch. 

Want to see a rain garden in its infancy?  In a few days, they will be ready to start planting and would be glad to have some help.  They're having a planting party on April 7th from 12:30 to 2:30.  They're located at 152nd and 20th Ave in Burien. 

We also learned how to identify what type of soil we have by wetting soil that had been dug up 12 inches below the surface.  You take this soil, wet it, and roll it into a coil with one hand.  As you round it into that coily cylindrical shape, how long your coil lasts before breaking off will determine what type of soil you have.  Mine is loamy sandy clay, I think.  So it has some water retention from the clay, mixed with some sand to allow water penetration. 

The best part of the presentation though had to be the slide-show of all the different plants that thrive in these gardens.  There were plants that I might not have dreamed of using otherwise.  Some because they love water and unless I can set an automatic sprinkler on it, a plant is very much on its own in my garden.  But other plants were ones I hadn't considered for my yard.  Here are a few that were particularly intriguing:

Shade-lovers:
Black Twinberry
Salmonberry
Cornus Kelseyi (dwarf red-twig dogwood)

Attracts hummingbirds:
Snowberry - beautiful striking berries
Western columbine

I'd recommend going for the information and the free booklet alone, which has a ton more information.  Plus, the workshop itself is free.  So it's quite a deal.

I'm thinking of one spot in my yard that could be perfect for a rain garden, which could help with run-off from slab concrete patio.  It might have to wait until next year, though...