The Smaller Rain Garden

Sometimes, a smaller rain garden can be appropriate for your yard.

Benefits of a smaller garden:

less time to create
less money to spend on plants
easier to fit into the landscape
you can do it without as much measuring (OK, so maybe none)

(Click on images for a larger view)

However, care must be taken to make sure that the garden will be sufficiently sized for the amount of water it needs to slurp up.

Here, the initial hole was dug and then observed during a heavy downpour.

Since there was no overflow and all of the water infiltrated quickly after the rain stopped, it was OK to go ahead and plant it.

The location was chosen because it was fairly close to the house without being too close (about 15 feet). The exisitng river birch tree was planted two years previously and seemed to be having trouble getting enough water. An old choke cherry stump would add an interesting backdrop to the rain garden.

The garden was planted with two Prairie Smoke plants (Geum Triflorem) and wood violets that were already available in the yard. A few pussy toe plants were added for ground cover at the top.

A feature of this tiny garden is the buried downspout from the house extending over to the garden site.

An added benefit is the downspout doesn't have to be moved every time the lawn is mowed!

A screen was placed over the outlet to make sure that small critters don't set up residence in the pipe.

The mature garden

Although some of the plants did not survive, others are thriving in 2006. The Great Blue Lobelias are very happy. The pussy toes were replaced with wild winter berry, the prairie smoke plants did not return and were replaced with Solomon Seal (a gift from another garden). Some native plants volunteered to join the mix too.

Most importantly, the rain garden is functioning perfectly ... it holds any size storm so far and infiltrates within a few hours.

Last Revised: Tuesday September 11 2007