By, Kyle Dubee
There are many ways to increase the health of your ecosystem and add enchanting features to your living landscape. Adding a low maintenance rain garden conserves water, provides habitat, and beauty.
Water, one of our most precious and finite resources is instrumental to creating a regenerative landscape.
Many people see water around their home as a problem rather than embracing it as a vital resource that can change all dynamics of their garden.
Often while consulting with clients they say things like, “what should I do about this wet spot?” or “I’ve got to get this water away from my foundation”.
I return with asking them questions about how that spot came to be:
“So what was there before- do you know?” I ask
“Oh a tree!” says the client- (usually)
“Well was the tree about this size?” I ask
“Yay!” they exclaim
“Well that makes sense, one mature tree that size can pull up to 100 gallons a day. So you removed a tree, that much more water is available to this localized area. Does that make sense?”
“Yes! So what should I do with this extra water?” most people ask…
“a rain garden”
A rain garden is a hole or depression in your landscape that allows for rainwater runoff to be gathered and slowly absorbed.
There are many advantages to incorporating rain gardens in your landscape. Rain gardens also create an ecosystem that can support plants and animals that thrive off the water that you have centralized.
So many beneficial and unique plants excel in these conditions and do so with little maintenance.
There are many water wise techniques that are worth exploring in your space, I hope that you can incorporate a rain garden into your home ecosystem.
Here’s one we installed in the Historic District Church Hill in Richmond, VA.