Nature provides a natural groundwater filtering process. Rainwater flows into low places, where native wildflowers and grasses soak up some of the water. The remainder slowly soaks into the ground over 24-48 hours. In a natural environment such as this, streams and creeks are fed by cool groundwater, which supplies the streams at a steady rate.
Rain gardens help to replace what we have taken away by building and paving. It slows runoff waste, increases infiltration, decrease surface run-off from roofs, paved areas, and road, and reduces the risk of flooding. Not all subsurface water will soak into the ground water. Surface run off water that is not absorbed in the rain garden slows down significantly from the swale and vegetative barrier which reduces sedimentation and pollution further downstream. Because the water moves slower in the ground than it does over paving, rain gardens can ease peak flow more than just reducing the volume of water reaching the outlet.
You need to plant a rain garden in a depression that is designed to take all, or as much excess rainwater run-off from a house or other building and its associated landscape as possible. The plants should be a selection of native wetland edge vegetation, such as sedges, rushes, ferns, shrubs and trees and absorb the excess water, and through the process of transpiration put water vapor back into the atmosphere. A more wide-ranging definition covers all the possible elements that can be used to capture, channel, divert, and make the most of the natural rain and snow that falls on a property.
In developed areas, low areas are filled in and the ground is leveled or paved, and water is directed into storm drains. This causes many problems. First of all, the streams that are fed by storm drains are subjected to sudden surges of water each time it rains, which contributes to erosion and flooding. Also, the water is warmer than the groundwater that normally feeds a stream, which upsets the delicate system. Warmer water cannot hold as much dissolved oxygen. Many fish and other creatures in the streams are unable to live in an environment with fluctuating temperatures.
A good place for a Rain gardens location is near a drainpipe from a building’s roof (with or without rain barrels), although if there’s a basement, a French drain may be used to direct the rainwater to a location farther from the building. Normally, a rain garden—or a series of rain gardens—is the endpoint of a drainage, but sometimes it can be designed as a pass-through system where water will percolate through a series of gravel layers and be captured by a French drain under the gravel and carried to a storm water system.
Rain gardens are beneficial for many reasons. They can lessen the effects of drought, help filter some pollutants from run off, make paved areas more attractive, and provide interesting planting opportunities. They also encourage wildlife and biodiversity, tie together buildings and their surrounding environments in attractive and environmentally advantageous ways, and make a significant contribution to important environmental problems that affect us all.
A rain garden provides an ideal way to use and optimize any rain that falls, reducing or avoiding the need for additional water usage or irrigation. They allow a household or building to deal with excessive rainwater runoff without burdening the public storm water networks. Rain gardens differ from retention basins, in that the water will infiltrate the ground within a day or two. This creates the advantage that the rain garden does not allow mosquitoes to breed.
Build Your Own Rain Garden Design
Build Your Own Rain Farden Guide
A Rain Garden Design Creates A Beautiful Scene
A beautiful rain garden design will enhance the pleasure that people feel in their homes. The family room with a big screen television might be a wonderful room, but a rain garden design in the yard will be a very special place. A yard established with a rain garden design will provide a great place for meeting with friends and family. A rain garden design in the backyard will be full of life and full of color. A rain garden in the backyard will be a place that people want to be for various activities. A rain garden design is a specialty of dedicated gardeners.
Dedicated rain garden gardeners do not go to the nurseries and choose the latest sale item to throw into the backyard. These gardeners think long and hard about a design for their gardens. They are very familiar with the most popular designs, and they decide which of these designs will be best for the space they garden. They know the rain garden has special characteristics. Many of these dedicated gardeners choose the rain garden design for the special qualities involved.
The Right Rain Garden Design Makes Great Use Of Natural Resources
The concept of a rain garden began sometime in the 1990s in the state of Maryland. They are now one of the fastest growing areas of interest for home landscapes.
A rain garden design is structured to make the best use of natural resources especially water. The purpose of a rain garden is to provide places for rain to soak into the ground, and not flow directly into storm drains, by creating a rain garden. A rain garden should be good news for those paying the water bill. This bill should be substantially reduced by those with a rain garden for their landscapes. This type of garden is carefully planned and constructed to capture as much water as possible for use to nourish the plants in the garden. The properly constructed rain garden design should capture water that has run off the roof or gutter of a house. Usually located under a downspout, a rain garden can simply be an area that slopes away from your house that is planted with vegetation adapted to large (but intermittent) amounts of rainfall.
A properly planned rain garden design should also help to eliminate some of the waste that runs off the soil into fresh water sources. The plants and the soil in this type of garden are carefully planted to keep waste and pollutants from causing the damage that they often do in other gardens. Native plants are ideally suited to these conditions. A rain garden should not be located too close to buildings because this could damage these structures. These gardens must be carefully placed to capture the water. A rain garden should be placed where the plants will get plenty of sunshine. The sunshine is necessary for the growth of the plants in a rain garden. For a more elaborate rain garden, place 1" x 6" boards on their sides to form a box, nail or bolt them together, backfill with a topsoil and sand mixture, then plant. A beautiful rain garden design will add so much beauty to a home, and those people who would like to establish a garden should look carefully at using this design.
