Rain Gardens: How to Sustainably Manage Water in Your Designed Greenspaces (First in a Series)

Without water we wouldn’t have gardens.  Water brings our gardens and landscapes to life.  When the concept of gardens designed purely for pleasure in the ancient cultures of the Middle East, water was a precious resource.  Some of the early gardens represent a lush green (water-fed) vision of perfection to an arid surrounding.  Water has always been a magnet, an indispensable ornamental element in gardens, and now, more recently, the presence of water has been seen as essential for creating a balanced habitat, a bird friendly garden to attract wildlife as well as providing pleasure for people.  Water is a finite and unpredictable resource and is now the epicenter of our planning and design thought process for our gardens and landscape.  Ultimately, the presence or absence of water dictates what is possible.

Technically, a rain garden is a very specific, planted depression that is designed to take all, or as much as possible excess rainwater run-off from the non permeable pavement, house or other building and its associated landscape.  In this series, I will use a more evocative approach, with a broader definition, covering more possible elements that can be used to capture, channel and make the most of the natural rain fall.  The idea is that all of the individual elements that we deal with are small-scale rain gardens in themselves.  Rain gardens promote planting and the more diverse or complex the planting, the greater the benefits.  Replacing paved surfaces or intensively managed turfgrass with mixed naturalistic planting will greatly increase the wildlife and habitat value of a garden.  

Although native plants make a major contribution to this naturalistic planting, rain gardens include plants from other regions, and when natives, flowering perennials and grasses with scattered shrubs are designed properly, you will create an ideal mix for encouraging a great diversity of wildlife.  Reality speaking, garden biodiversity is not the just the visible and attractive things we like- birds and butterflies, it is about the things we can’t see- insects and invertebrates, hidden in the soil or vegetation.  Rain gardens are particularly useful for supporting that greater biodiversity.  Next blog I will discuss Stormwater Planters, methods and techniques.

If you have any questions or would like to read on other sustainable topics pertaining to the landscape, please email me at eric@florapacifica.com