rain gardens

17 years ago

I notice that many people in my neighborhood in Minneapolis (Longfellow) are establishing rain gardens in a shallow depression on their lawns. I'm sure they will be very pretty and help with the storm water run off problem. But in my experience, areas with shallow depressions tend to fill with ice in the winter and the plants rot and die especially in March. Any thoughts?

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Comments (4)

carmellia
17 years ago
A good place to get info on rain gardens would be the Bog forum. I had occasion to check it a few months ago, and there were several threads about rain gardens.
meeperx
17 years ago
Another solution to deal with gutter runoff is to install passive drainage systems at the base of your gutters-basically a drain attached to an underground pipe which re-routes the runoff water to another part of your yard/garden. My neighbor had some installed last year and they look and work great.
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karenn3
17 years ago
I installed a rain garden last year, not in the lawn but at the edge of my driveway. I've had no problem with ice though it's been only one year. This may also be because i improved the drainage in the garden. Also, many rain garden plants have deep roots and I wonder if this would help them survive ice at the crown area. Not sure. I never even thought of it as I did the project quickly. The Mpls watershed districts in cooperation with the Center for Urban Environment (CUE) and Mpls Blooms sponser rain garden seminars and this subj. didn't come up. Two useful websites are:

http://www.urbanwaterquality.org/
http://marcy-holmes.org/projects/rainwater/3.html
zenpotter
17 years ago
I too went to the Mpls Blooms rain gardens workshops and if done properly water does not stand in them so there won't been water to freeze.

They are made as a way to direct the water from your gutters into the depression and then filter it as it is added back into the ecosystem. As an added bonus if done properly you can get a reduction on the portion of your utility bill that is charged for waste water. It must be done properly. The workshops are free to Minneapolis residents. There is so much information on the above links and via the green institute that you don't have to go to a workshop to make one the right way.

I think the workshops are done for this year, but watch your mail for next year the information comes with the water bill.

We put ours in last summer and it is looking very good. It is important to use Native Plants. One more bonus. You don't need to water as much because you are using the water rather than having it run off.