What has my rain garden done for me lately?

So today is September 1st. It's almost always dry at this time of year. This year though, we've had the hottest summer on record in Durham, North Carolina. And it's been breezy. There were days when I felt that I was walking around in a convection oven. Our gardens have suffered. Even the rain garden is showing signs of stress with groundcovers displaying burnt edges on their leaves.
Thank God for the grasses. Nothing ever seems to phase them and now they are topped with beautiful plumes that sway in the hot breeze.

I did a little weeding this weekend. I didn't think I'd get very far with the ground being baked to a brick-like consistency. And in parts of the yard, this was true but the beds on the slope just below the rain garden had moist soil. I shoved a long narrow spade in to clean up the edge of the bed and pull back the runner grass and it slid in easily. The soil was still moist to a depth of at least eight inches. This surprised me since we've only had a smattering of brief rain over the last two weeks that punctuated the oven-like days. My only conclusion is that a large area around the rain garden soaked up the water that sits for a day or two after a storm event just like a sponge. Moving uphill from that very same rain garden and the soil is dry and hard as would be expected for the weather patterns we've had.

So now, I'm trying to decide how to incorporate a rain garden over by the apple and cherry trees and the blueberry bushes. We'll collect the run-off from the north side of the garage roof and channel it there. We won't get near the volume of water because the square footage is so small but even 4 or 500 gallons would make a difference to the fruiting trees and bushes.

September here in North Carolina is also a very high-risk time for the after effects of coastal hurricanes. Earl is now moving toward our coast but the weatherman says no rain for us from this storm. Fiona is following right behind him but it looks like she too is going to stay far out to sea and not even an outer band of moisture will reach us.

Of course I'm not wishing for destruction at the coast to get us a little much needed rain but as they say 'If wished were horses then beggars would ride on gleaming white stallions with bright fiery eyes'. So,,,, I wish for a weather system that settles peacefully over the upper piedmont where we live and slowly drops a few inches of much needed moisture over a few cool days. Yes, wishes.

Is this a rain garden post?

Hooker Falls is a sensory overload as the sound of the crashing water, the mist touching your face and the cool water between your toes speaks of the power of water.

Finally got a chance to get away for a few days. This escape was courtesy of North Carolina Touring, a company that plans motorcycle trips for busy people. We spent three days traveling to and through the mountains of North Carolina, stopping to view and photograph beautiful water falls.

The trip started in Durham and after the necessary miles on I85 and I40, we began to travel two-lane black top through small mountain towns. My favorite was when we wound our way through lush river bottom land. As the black top narrowed, the scenery became quainter. We meandered past corn fields, tree farms, bee keepers and tiny cottages whose gardens dwarfed the homes the gardeners lived in.

There is something very special about viewing the land from the back of a motorcycle. The sound of air rushing past your helmet is mesmerizing. The smells are amazing. Fresh cut fields of hay, dips and curves that took you into deep forested places smelling of fern and moss and then the smell of water as you approached a bridge spanning a section of lake.

Three days on a bike and finally, I was grateful to pull into our driveway. The lawn cried out for a haircut neglected on the weekend but thankfully, the rain garden had taken care of itself.

Festival on the Eno - Observations

I spent several hours working the information booth for the Ellerbe Creek Watershed Association at Durham's annual Festival on the Eno this 4th of July weekend.

It was gratifying to see the number of groups represented there that are actively involved in keeping our planet healthy.

Two things became very clear. Those that are involved in these organizations are well-informed and passionate about protecting our forests, wetlands, animals and waterways and especially those lands that help keep the balance between people living on and off the land and sustaining that land for future generations. The second thing was that large numbers of our population have only a vague idea of why this is important.

With all the publicity that the Falls Lake water quality issue has generated recently in our area, I would have thought that more people would have an understanding of the relationship between their drinking water and land use. Sadly that is not so.

Everyone of us that uses water lives in a watershed. Do you know which watershed you live in? Do you know how your actions affect your watershed?

Hostas in the June Rain Garden

In a drier part of our rain garden, the Patriot Hosta is flourishing. Although all hosta will not tolerate this lack of moisture, Patriot is quite forgiving and continues to multiply each year.

This Sum & Substance Hosta is planted near the overflow pipe from the rain barrels. Condensation from the AC unit also flows into the rain garden at this location. The fern directly below it's leaves also benefits from the added moisture.

Durham is currently 4 inches below normal in rainfall amounts for the year. Looking at the lush foliage in the rain garden above, it's obvious that this deficit hasn't been felt by any of these plants.
A careful selection of plant materials will assure an interesting and lush garden throughout the spring, summer and fall season.

A 50 Pound Lily

For those that remember my 'She's here' post, here's an update on the 8 1/2 pound pup we brought home last July. Darling Lily is growing up. A brief visit to the vet today and they weighed our now not-so-little girl in at 50 pounds.

Fragile she's not and has been given the nickname 'Cinderblock'.

And of course she rules the household even though we tell ourselves that WE are the leader of the pack.

Right.

Blooming Now In The Rain Garden

The end of April and beginning of May are my favorite time in the rain garden. All the groundcovers have popped back up and covered the bare spots. The grasses are tall, beautiful and sway with the slightest breeze.

And then there is the color. Dainty orchid-like Siberian Iris is in full bloom and the shade of Ceasar's Brother can only be described as deep royal purple. Close by, the wild indigo (Baptisia) blooms in a pure blue and below it, the spiderwort is covered in deep lavender star-shaped blooms jutting from short stems at the base of each leaf. This grouping has great color and texture and fills about 1/5 of the entire perennial space. And the backdrop for the sprinkling of lavenders, purples and blues is an old unidentified azalea with hose-in-hose blooms of a deep rich pink. It's really a wow moment.

I've managed to keep pulled the few weeds that popped up through the spring. The next chore will be to cut the stems of the wild columbine (Aquilegia canadensis) when they've dried and find a friend to give them to for their gardens.

The 'Sum & Substance' hosta I moved to the garden last fall likes its new spot by the overflow pipe from the rainbarrels. The ribbed leaves have grown to 12 inches across this year and new shoots have emerged. Next year this hosta will be a real eye catcher because of its size and chartreuse color. A Tassel fern is now hidden underneath it's canopy and will have to be moved this fall.

Surprisingly, the above scenario has played out with below normal rainfall over a 4 week period. This speaks to choosing plants with the versatility of taking it wet or tolerating it dry. Plant selection is key to a beautiful rain garden.

More plants survived the winter

It's been exciting to check the rain garden each week to see if any new shoots have emerged. My big concern over the Hibiscus coccineus is now laid to rest. Both clumps have new green shoots emerging around the old stems from last year.

I planted some Maidens grass by the overflow pipe from the rain barrels, just to see if it would survive in soggy soil as an experiment and it too has new green shoots coming up.

The wild columbine went from little bunches of leaves 6 inches high to full bloom with those lovely red bell-shaped blooms dangling from 24 inch stems in just a week. The fact that we had temps in the high 80's had a lot to do with that. The progression from leaves to full bloom usually takes 3 or 4 weeks but this has been an unusual spring with temperatures that matched the record books recorded highs.

The spiderwort is also beginning to bloom with those vivid purple star-shaped flowers atop the stems and the blue indigo that refused to poke its head up has now reached a height of 18 inches in just this last 2 weeks.

We have a new challenge it seems for the rain garden. We have had less that 1/8 inch of rain in the last 2 weeks and none is predicted for at least another week. So many things are popping up and really need that moisture to continue to grow and form healthy plants. I guess we'll now be testing the drought hardiness of some of the more delicate plants.

I'll be posting pictures of the rain garden soon, so check back to see what kind of color and texture is happening now.

Cold Winters & Plant Hardiness

The Herald Sun's recent article about the winter of 2009/2010 confirmed my suspicions. This was one of the coldest winters on record, in fact the 6th coldest winter in the Durham area since records were kept back in the 40's. In addition to the cold we received around 7 inches of snow when our average is slightly over 2 inches. This winter there were days on end when the rain garden was nothing but a water filled bog. This is a large deviation from the years since it's planting when we have had below normal rainfall and water passed through and filtered down in less than 3 hours. All the plants did extremely well under the drier conditions.

My inspection yesterday showed that the grasses are sending up new shoots, as are the Aquilegia, Sedum and Siberian Iris. A few more warm days and I'll check again.

Brave Little Shoots

It's hard to believe but as I inspected the rain garden today, there poking through the dried brown foliage were tiny green leaves on the sedums, the iris and the spiderwort.

This winter is a real test for our rain garden. As I have indicated in my book, The Rain Garden Handbook, certain plants will tolerate 'wet feet'. How wet for how long is the important question. So as we finally move into the spring season, I'll begin to list those plants that have made it through the wettest winter I can ever remember in the Carolinas. I think there will be some surprises as plants I have listed as preferring drier soil conditions seem to have survived the constant state of muck we've just had.

But first, the weatherman cautiously predicts another winter weather event for our area for Tuesday and Wednesday of this week. How many pictures can one take of a snow covered rain garden? I hope that I am done for this year.

snowcovered Rain Garden

A Long Soggy Winter

There has been very little opportunity to garden these past few months. In fact, we've been so consistently wet that the ponds still haven't been completely cleaned out from the falling leaves. Even if walking on wet ground wasn't a big no no, I would still refuse to garden with umbrella in hand. Call me a fair weather gardener.

The moisture deficit in our area is a thing of the past. I was curious to see what would happen when the ground became saturated and our berms held all moisture that fell to our property. The answer is that we have a couple leaks in the basement. One two day period in November produced 4 1/2" of rain. This is when I discovered not only the existing leak that has always been there by the chimney but also a new leak coming in from where we added the basement door. I think this one may be related to the fact that the water has no where to go except downhill and that means down our basement steps and into the well under the bottom step that houses a sump pump. Perhaps this spring we'll add some overflow channels that can be opened should we ever need to actually let rainwater leave the property.

The gentle little Ellerbe Creek across the street is now a raging river. The stream restoration work done by the EEP last spring has held up well through the heavy downpours. I wonder though, how many events like this one it will take before the fast moving water begins cutting deeper channels. I was thinking that if we could get just 10% of all our neighbors to put in those raingardens, the creek wouldn't be forced to carry so much run-off.