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Guest blogger: Rain gardens 101

Posted on May 6th, 2008 – 8:35 AM
By Jaime Chismar
HG2RAIN09.jpg

If you’d like to go a little greener in the garden this year, there are plenty of things you can do: start composting to reduce yard and kitchen waste; opt for natural fertilizers for your lawn and garden — or put in a rain garden.

A rain garden is not a water feature like a pond or a fountain. It’s a great, low-maintenance way to incorporate native plants into your lawn, reduce runoff, and keep Minnesota’s watershed healthy and happy.

Metro Blooms is making rain gardening a little easier by sponsoring a series of educational workshops on how to plan and plant a rain garden. In addition to the basic workshop, the nonprofit organization also offers a two-hour coaching session on rain gardening as well as on-site consultations and reimbursement grants for buying native plants.

Today’s guest blogger (and beginning gardener), Kathleen Clonts attended a workshop in March and gives us the scoop:

I went to one of Metro Blooms’ rain garden workshops without knowing much about rain gardens — other than I guessed they would involve using native plants and, well, rain. I was lured by the cost ($10) and the possibility of a $65 native plant reimbursement.

Most of the audience probably heard “low-maintenance’’ and expected B-O-R-I-N-G, but the gardens that Rusty Schmidt, the presenter, showcased were lush and attractive. He went through a wealth of information in the two-hour session including: sizing a garden, figuring out the needed depth with a water percolation test (not as difficult as it sounds), diverting water to the bed and choosing plants.

Frankly, it was more information than some of my 5-hour-credit college courses gave me.

Metro Blooms also offers a part B workshop (also cheaper than a bad manicure) where small groups work with professionals to plan their gardens. People interested in installing a rain garden may also get a financial help from their watershed district. More info on classes around the Twin Cities at metroblooms.org.

What’s your take on rain gardens? Have you started on of your own? What advice would you give to those gardeners who’d like to give ‘em a try?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 6th, 2008 at 8:35 am and is filed under Rain gardens. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

7 Responses to "Guest blogger: Rain gardens 101"

Cynthia says:

May 6th, 2008 at 10:35 am

I attended the Metro Blooms seminars last year, put in a rain garden and got reimbursement. I should preface this by saying that I am NOT a plant person or gardener. (I subscribe to this blog in hopes of becoming a bit less inept with plants.) The rain garden was one of the coolest things I’ve done with my house/yard. I used all plugs, so started with really small plants and grasses, but by the end of summer most of the plants had grown well. I had a ton of color, bumblebees, butterflies… it was so fun to watch. Plus, most importantly, it WORKED! The runoff from my sidewalk into my driveway and garage was almost completely resolved, all summer and in the thaw this spring. During the heavy rains it was full of water, but always drained in the appropriate amount of time to prevent skeeters. It was such an accomplishment because it worked AND I kept it alive! I’m seeing some shoots now, and am excited to see what this year brings. Hopefully more flowers!

Jaime Chismar says:

May 6th, 2008 at 10:48 am

Wow Cynthia! That is the coolest. I’d love to see a photo or two of your garden(send to greengirls@startribune.com).

So, how much start up labor did your garden require? Is it something that can be implemented in a weekend or two? What kind of wildlife does it attract to your yard?

jeff says:

May 6th, 2008 at 11:41 am

I’m sure the rest of us on the blog would like to see Cynthia’s creation too. Can it be posted? I’m trying to figure out how I can have one in my yard.

Liz says:

May 6th, 2008 at 8:41 pm

I put a rain garden in my yard two summer ago after attending the Metro Blooms workshop. It has also been a lot of fun. It took about a weekend to install with the help of my sister and husband (we had a new born at the time so that made it more time consuming). We bought a rain garden starter kit from the Friends Plant sale and a Tamarack tree and I think it was all covered by the reimbursement. It has been doing really well because it is made up of hardy native perienals that are typical to lake shores so they have a super long root system that can handle not being water everyday. The biggest up keep is weeding out the maple saplings in the spring. So far we have one down spout that runs into it and our rain barrel in our back yard runs a hose to it. We don’t like to use the rain barrel to water edibles because the water run off from the asphalt roof which we have heard is not very clean. So, this has been a good solution. We are thinking that we will get a second rainbarrel that we will run into the rain garden this year. And I am hoping to add some more native perenials this year. I highly recommend adding one to your yard. It has been a lot of fun to see all of the butterflys that pass through and to know that you are helping to clean water with your low maintenence garden.

Sandra says:

May 7th, 2008 at 9:33 am

I took the seminar last year too but have to admit, I found the project too daunting to do all by myself. Kudos to you ladies doing this without help. I’m thinking of hiring someone this year, so I can stop getting that standing swimming pool on my sidewalk every time it rains!

Jaime Chismar says:

May 7th, 2008 at 10:43 am

I just signed up for a Metro Blooms workshop on May 22. Looks like I better sharpen my shovel!

Cynthia says:

May 7th, 2008 at 12:02 pm

I do have photos - I took them throughout the summer for proof that I could grow something. I’ll email a few to Greengirls. Feel free to post a few. It took us a weekend, but we also used the soil from the rain garden “hole” to build up a berm on the other side of the sidewalk for a perennial garden, which also shunts water into the rain garden. I would like to get a rain barrel, too, but was too late last year.

Because I’m right in the heart of Mpls, with a fenced yard and two dogs, I didn’t get much wildlife other than insects. I have a resident rabbit, though. I did leave the dead plants up all winter to provide seed and refuge, and I think the rabbit hung out in there a lot. I had a lot of birds right at the start of winter when the seedheads were still full.

We bought our plants at a native plant nursery out in Wisconsin. This year I want to install more Indian Grass as a sight barrier on the chain link, but will try to get that locally. I think all but $10 of my cost was covered by the subsidy.

This has been a huge help for us because our detatched garage always would end up with an inch of water on the floor in heavy rain or spring thaw. With the spring thaw/freezes, that caused a lot of heaving, and the garage floor is a cracked mess that will need to be replaced at some point. Since installing the rain garden, we haven’t once had standing water in the garage, not even after last summer’s big storms.

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