smgarciatx's ideas
3. Set your inflow and overflow points. The water you want to direct into your rain garden can be moved from a nonpervious, or impervious, surface via a rock or vegetated swale or an underground pipe. In the landscape here, a drainpipe connects directly to the roof downspout and leads downhill to a flattened rain garden area. A swale moves water across the ground’s surface and can be part of an integrated swale and rain garden design. Keep in mind that a swale collects additional water as it carries your intended water to the rain garden, adding to the water volume the rain garden will need to accommodate. The inflow source, where the water enters the rain garden via a swale or an underground pipe, should be located higher than the overflow point, which is a small outlet that allows excess water to escape during big rain events, set at the top of the ponding depth of the rain garden
. Grade the rain garden. Grading is the process of contouring and sloping the ground so that water moves across it. The rain garden should function like a shallow, wide container with a porous bottom. Use this checklist to ensure that your rain garden is graded correctly. Flat base: The rain garden needs a flat, level base so that water can drain evenly. Use a level to check that your rain garden’s base is flat. Containment: On sloped sites create a berm on the low edge of the rain garden, if needed; the berm creates a ridge around the lower side of the rain garden so that the water will be contained and less likely to splash over. Sloped sides: The sides of the rain garden should have a 2:1 slope; for every 2 inches of run, the side should rise 1 inch.
Excavate and amend. Rain gardens slowly drain rainwater and should not hold water for more than 48 hours. Therefore, it’s critical that the soil mix in the rain garden allows for adequate infiltration. If your existing soil did not perform well in your infiltration rate test, here are two approaches to creating the correct soil mix. Completely remove the existing soil to a depth of 18 to 24 inches and replace it with a bioretention mix of compost and sand. This method is necessary if your existing soil has a very poor infiltration rate (based on the soil infiltration test explained earlier in this article). If your existing soil has poor infiltration, it’s also a good measure to install subdrainage below your rain garden. Amend the existing soil with compost and sand. This is the more common and less expensive method. Whichever method you use, the base of the rain garden should be 4 to 8 inches below the surrounding ground, and the amended soil should go 1 foot to 2 feet below that.
Test the existing soil’s infiltration rate. Once you have chosen your rain garden location, test the existing soil’s infiltration rate. The existing soil infiltration rate plays a part in how you create your soil mix for the rain garden. You can do an infiltration test yourself (or hire a landscape contractor to do one for you): Dig a hole at least 1 foot deep at your intended rain garden location. Fill the hole with water to fully saturate the soil at the base, and let it sit for 45 minutes. Refill the hole completely with water and observe for 48 hours. If the water completely drains within 48 hours, your existing soil’s infiltration rate is adequate. If the water does not drain within 48 hours, you will need to excavate the existing soil and provide subdrainage to ensure that the water flows out of the rain garden, or consider an alternate location for your rain garden.
“I have 23 trees in this garden,” Levy says. “It’s an orchard shape, with fruit trees along the walls and down the path, soft fruit growing beneath and a raised veg bed at the back.”
Levy prepares another section of ground using the no-dig technique. Rather than dig into the lawn to create a bed, he covers the grass with a layer of horse manure, then cardboard, then coffee grounds, building up layers of organic material.
The worms are happy under the bricks, and there is no light getting to the grass and weeds. I only leave the bricks on for about three weeks, until a bamboo stick can be pushed in with no effort, like a knife through butter, which normally would be difficult, as grassed areas are very compacted.”
Kitchen
Kitchen
Molding instead of curtains
Kitchen
Reality!
Flat yard gets perceived elevation
Living wall
Pond
Everything
Easy floor. Matching flowers and seating. Brilliant
Q