What is a rain garden? A rain garden is a planted depression designed to absorb rainwater from your roof or yard. It’s a great way to get a low-maintenance garden that attracts pollinators and wildlife, and it has a whole ton of other advantages that are sure to convince you to make one.
What Are Rain Garden Advantages?
A rain garden has a number of environmental benefits such as pollution reduce, conserving water and preventing flooding. As rainwater often carries oil or chemicals, it’s better to filter it before letting it into waterways, and that’s exactly what a rain garden does. Such a feature allows water to naturally seep into the ground reducing irrigation. Having a water garden will prevent rain water from flooding your property as it holds all the excessives. One more important advantage is supporting pollinators and wildlife as a rain garden is a habitat for birds, butterflies, and beneficial insects. The last but not least point is adding interest to your garden or yard, especially if you use colorful plants and attract butterflies or birds.
This is how your rainwater garden may look: pebbles, rocks, stones and greenery plus blooms around.
This is how you can redirect the rainwater: use pebbles and stones to move it.
This small rain garden features all the necessary things: pebbles to direct the stream and water plants.
You can have a very aesthetic rain pond done with various rocks and all types of plants and flowers.
This pretty small rainwater garden is located at the fence and is done with pebbles and stones and there are various plants around.
This is a spectacular rain garden with stones and rocks, bright blooms and branches.
What To Prepare For A Rain Garden?
Select The Right Location
Use the area where rainwater flowers or redirect the flow into some depression in the yard, that will require some effort and special means but it’s still realizable. Your rain garden should catch the rainwater before it reaches anything else, so a depressed spot is the best place, and if you don’t have one, make it by digging. The size of the garden should be 1/3 the size of the area contributing runoff (e.g., your roof or driveway). Create layers of planting, usually there are three zones: center, mid and outer. The center zone is the deepest part with water-loving plants, the mid zone is less wet and more elevated, and the outer zone is the driest.
This is a dry stream bed with rocks and blooms, when there's no rainwater.
This space is covered with pebbles and rocks and is surrounded with textural grasses and leaves.
The rainwater stream is surrounded with lush greenery and grasses.
This small rain garden looks spectacular thanks to the colors used.
This rainwater garden looks very beautiful and natural as the rainwater stream is styled as a real river.
Choose The Right Plants
Native plants are well-suited to your local climate and require less maintenance. They also attract pollinators and wildlife creating a very natural landscape in the garden or yard. Choose plants that can handle both wet and dry conditions, as rain gardens alternate between soaking and drying out, for example: grasses, switchgrass, sedge, flowers, black-eyed susan, coneflower, blue flag iris, red twig dogwood and winterberry holly. Be prepared to water the plants when there’s not enough rainwater.
This is a currently dry rain garden with pebbles and rocks plus greenery and bright flowers.
This bold rain garden is styled with a small waterfall, large rocks and bright flowers and greenery around.
This lovely rain garden strikes with a bold selection of stones and lots of lush greenery of various kinds.
The rain stream is styled with rocks, pebbles and bold mulch, with grasses natural for this area.
Give the rainwater body a natural stream shape and surround it with local plants to make the look authentic.
How To Build A Rain Garden?
Building might seem expensive but if you choose the location and plants wisely, it won’t break the bank. As for the detailed instructions, you may find various DIYs on the web, choose the shape and the look that you like.
The rainwater garden features smaller pebbles and larger rocks, it's built as a natural stream.
This is how you can design a rainwater garden if you feel like building levels for a stream. Add water plants around and voila.
The rain water pond is done with stones and pebbles, native water and usual plants and blooms.
This rain water stream is designed as a natural water body, with grasses and native plants around.
This long rainwater stream is designed with lush greenery and bright wildflowers around to give it a natural look.
This gorgeous garden is a rain one, with a water stream, some greenery and bright plants, large rocks.
This lovely feature is a rain water garden with pebbles adn rocks and lush green plants around.
How To Maintain Your Rain Garden?
During the first growing season, water your plants regularly to help them establish strong roots. Once established, rain gardens require minimal watering. Keep weeds under control, especially in the first year, to allow your plants to thrive. Replenish mulch annually to maintain a healthy moisture level and prevent erosion. After heavy rains, inspect your rain garden to ensure it’s draining properly. If water is pooling for more than 48 hours, you may need to improve soil drainage.
This rain water stream is built with pebbles, some greenery and bright flowers.
The rain garden is jaw-dropping: there's a stream clad with dark pebbles and rocks, lush groundcovers and greenery.
The garden is done with greenery and pink blooms plus a rainwater pond, there's a bridge over it.
This gorgeous feature is a rain garden with a lot of greenery and bright flowers. (via diyeverywhere).
This jaw-dropping landscape is a rain garden with rocks, greenery and marigolds. (via spirecreativity).
This is a mini rain garden with bright blooms and greenery, rocks and some dark mulch. (via urbangardentips).
The rainwater is going down to the ground and the rocks and greenery around compose a rain garden. (via houzz).