Today I am going to geek out a little and talk about rain gardens. LGS has been obsessed with installing these beautiful features in clients yards for years and here’s why.
A rain garden is a landscape feature that is slightly depressed and has an arrangement of plants designed with the goal of capturing stormwater runoff and letting it percolate into the soil gradually with natural filtration from native plants.
In case you don’t already know, stormwater runoff is water from a storm event (rain) that isn’t absorbed into the soil or vegetation right away and eventually ends up flowing into storm drains or directly into our local water bodies with little filtration. Areas with a large percent of impervious surfaces such as large parking lots and high density developments generally have large amounts of stormwater runoff which enters our water bodies with little filtration! The idea behind a rain garden is to reduce the amount of stormwater runoff going unfiltered. This runoff can contain harmful pollutants that degrade the ecosystem of our water bodies including the Chesapeake Bay! The United States Environmental Protection Agency declared the Chesapeake Bay to be excessively polluted with nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment in 2010. These pollutants can be found in stormwater runoff commonly from a wide range of land uses.
stormwater run off process
The good news is that rain gardens can help filter out each of these pollutants before they reach our local water bodies! If a rain garden is placed and planted right runoff will be absorbed in the rain garden and the vegetation will naturally filter it reducing the amount of pollutants reaching our water ways and ultimately the Chesapeake Bay! It’s amazing how one landscape feature can have such a positive effect on the environment, isn’t it?
Keeping our waterways clean isn’t the only eco benefit rain gardens bring to the table. The native plantings in a rain garden can also support wildlife right in your yard with food, nectar and shelter. If you decide to plant a rain garden be sure to pick a variety of native plants that benefit different types of wildlife.
They can also help manage drainage issues on your yard and look beautiful while doing it! Rain gardens can reduce the puddling in your yard by absorbing stormwater run off and then letting it percolate into the soil . Rain gardens are pleasing to the eye with a variety of plants that can bring some color to your landscape.
newly planted rain garden
established rain garden
To sum up rain gardens are awesome for so many reasons! I couldn’t possibly go into every reason with this blog so check some of the resources we complied in the document linked below if you are interested.
If your interested in getting an estimate for a rain garden on your property just let us know using the contact form on our website or by emailing laurensgardens@gmail.com. Also, feel free to check out our rain garden page on our website for information on pricing and Howard County incentives.
Look out for more blogs including our top rain garden plant picks, more eco-friendly landscaping practices and much more! Thanks for checking out our blog and good luck with your gardening.