Friday, July 27, 2012
Spiderwort in the Rain Garden on July 27th, 2012
Rain Garden Problems - The Maintenance Issue
Everything in nature is constantly changing and so it goes even with a rain garden. If you've ever planted a vegetable garden and then left it to fend for itself, you quickly discover that dormant seeds in the soil have sprouted and a variety of plants you hadn't intended to compete with your vegetables are thriving. After a matter of weeks these intruders may choke out your tomatoes, beans and everything else you planted.
This same problem will ocurr in landscaped beds and any type of garden. Maintenance will always be required.
The key to keeping your rain garden as weed free as possible is learning to recognize seedlings from your intended plants from whatever else has popped up. In my book, The Rain Garden Handbook, a picture of tiny Baptisia australis (wild blue indigo) seedlings peek from under a larger Aquilegia Canadensis (wild columbine). Although very small, the tiny leaves are easy to recognize as being similar to those of the mother plant. These seedlings should be left to grow as they were intended to be part of your rain garden.
On the other hand, if you don't recognize the tiny leaves, pull the seedling. I generally fill an aluminum bucket several times during the spring season ridding my rain garden of unwanted plant species that the wind may have blown in or were dormant in the soil when I first created the garden.
Another problem can ocurr when a hybrid variety of, as an example, Houttuynia cordata 'Variegata' reverts back to the original form. This ocurred in one of my clients gardens and the plain green-leaved variety began taking over the whole rain garden. The only remedy was to dig every root of the plain green-leaved variety and add it to the compost pile. If left to continue spreading, it would have choked out the Hosta, Siberian Iris, Liriope and everything else that was not as vigorous a grower.
Another maintenance issue is replacing plants that have died. If you don't cover the ground with another preferred plant, then Mother Nature will and it will be her choice. I found that the Lobelia cardinalis, all twelve of them, were devoured by tiny green worms and by the third year they didn't pop up in the spring at all. I found a variety of sedum to fill some of the bare spots and the wild columbines had seeded into the other spots. The rain garden was again filled with plants that were attractive and suitable to the existing conditions.
Keeping fallen leaves from accumulating in the fall months is also a necessary chore. If allowed to build up, they can smother the plants you designed to be there. A leaf blower is preferable to a rake in this instance so that delicated ground covers are not ripped from the soil as you clean.
Other maintenance chores would be removing stems that have performed their purpose and now are 'brown and down' in the garden. Tradescantia (spiderwort) is famous for this dissappearing trick. It's lavendar to purple blooms continue for many weeks in spring but then as the heat of summer sets in, the stems begin to yellow and droop, finally lying on the ground in pitiful looking strings. These can be cut and removed to the compost pile.
Other maintenance issues will be discussed in their season of occurence.
Look for problems related to the installation of your rain garden next post.
Cheryl
This same problem will ocurr in landscaped beds and any type of garden. Maintenance will always be required.
The key to keeping your rain garden as weed free as possible is learning to recognize seedlings from your intended plants from whatever else has popped up. In my book, The Rain Garden Handbook, a picture of tiny Baptisia australis (wild blue indigo) seedlings peek from under a larger Aquilegia Canadensis (wild columbine). Although very small, the tiny leaves are easy to recognize as being similar to those of the mother plant. These seedlings should be left to grow as they were intended to be part of your rain garden.
On the other hand, if you don't recognize the tiny leaves, pull the seedling. I generally fill an aluminum bucket several times during the spring season ridding my rain garden of unwanted plant species that the wind may have blown in or were dormant in the soil when I first created the garden.
Another problem can ocurr when a hybrid variety of, as an example, Houttuynia cordata 'Variegata' reverts back to the original form. This ocurred in one of my clients gardens and the plain green-leaved variety began taking over the whole rain garden. The only remedy was to dig every root of the plain green-leaved variety and add it to the compost pile. If left to continue spreading, it would have choked out the Hosta, Siberian Iris, Liriope and everything else that was not as vigorous a grower.
Another maintenance issue is replacing plants that have died. If you don't cover the ground with another preferred plant, then Mother Nature will and it will be her choice. I found that the Lobelia cardinalis, all twelve of them, were devoured by tiny green worms and by the third year they didn't pop up in the spring at all. I found a variety of sedum to fill some of the bare spots and the wild columbines had seeded into the other spots. The rain garden was again filled with plants that were attractive and suitable to the existing conditions.
Keeping fallen leaves from accumulating in the fall months is also a necessary chore. If allowed to build up, they can smother the plants you designed to be there. A leaf blower is preferable to a rake in this instance so that delicated ground covers are not ripped from the soil as you clean.
Other maintenance chores would be removing stems that have performed their purpose and now are 'brown and down' in the garden. Tradescantia (spiderwort) is famous for this dissappearing trick. It's lavendar to purple blooms continue for many weeks in spring but then as the heat of summer sets in, the stems begin to yellow and droop, finally lying on the ground in pitiful looking strings. These can be cut and removed to the compost pile.
Other maintenance issues will be discussed in their season of occurence.
Look for problems related to the installation of your rain garden next post.
Cheryl
Thursday, July 26, 2012
Avoiding problems with your rain garden
In my last post, I mentioned finding many google topics involving problems with rain gardens. It's not surprising that it took a few years for these situations to creep up as rain gardens were not put to use until about ten years ago. There has been a learning curve and it will continue.
Three main issues contribute to a rain garden's functionality problems. They are:
- Poor design
-Poor maintenance
-Poor initial contruction
We'll talk about the poor design aspect today.
The depth, width and length of your rain garden must create a depression large enough to handle the volume of water you would expect from a normal rain event. To determine these measurements, you must know the rate at which water will perk or pass through your yards soil type. Even though you will be excavating a depression that you'll fill with a special rain garden soil mix, the underlying and surrounding soil are going to influence how quickly water passes on down through subsequent layers of sub soil and into soil areas surrounding your rain garden.
If we assume you have a sandy loam soil, water will pass through that soil in a matter of hours given a normal rain event. This allows you to dig a deeper depression with less surface area (width & length). Keep in mind we want the standing water gone within 24 to 48 hours maximum. You should be taking into consideration what square footage of impervious surface you are draining to this rain garden. Unless your house is quite small, it is doubtful that you'll be mitigating the rain water from more than a portion, perhaps one side of a roof. Every run off solution makes a small contribution to the overall problem so don't be dissappointed that you can't contain all your storm water.
If we assume that you have a heavy clay soil, water may take many days to pass through sub soil layers if it drains at all. In this case, the portion of impervious surface you can drain to your garden will be smaller and your rain garden will be much shallower and have a larger surface area. You'll probably want to increase the sand percentage of your soil mix. You won't encounter mosquito problems from standing water if all the water is actually down within the sand, compost, soil mix. A combination of evaporation and plant root water uptake will eliminate the rain water that was contained in your rain garden eventually.
Size isn't the only design issue that can cause problems. If the edge of the rain garden slopes off too steeply, you may not be retaining the rain water but merely slowing it down as it moves downhill. Make sure that the edge of the garden is high enough to prevent the water from running in and then right back out. You want to keep that water in the rain garden.
If you are just now considering the use of a rain garden in your yard, careful research will help to avoid making mistakes in your overall design. It's easier and less costly to do it right than to do it over.
We'll save the discussions on maintenance and installation problems for future posts.
Three main issues contribute to a rain garden's functionality problems. They are:
- Poor design
-Poor maintenance
-Poor initial contruction
We'll talk about the poor design aspect today.
The depth, width and length of your rain garden must create a depression large enough to handle the volume of water you would expect from a normal rain event. To determine these measurements, you must know the rate at which water will perk or pass through your yards soil type. Even though you will be excavating a depression that you'll fill with a special rain garden soil mix, the underlying and surrounding soil are going to influence how quickly water passes on down through subsequent layers of sub soil and into soil areas surrounding your rain garden.
If we assume you have a sandy loam soil, water will pass through that soil in a matter of hours given a normal rain event. This allows you to dig a deeper depression with less surface area (width & length). Keep in mind we want the standing water gone within 24 to 48 hours maximum. You should be taking into consideration what square footage of impervious surface you are draining to this rain garden. Unless your house is quite small, it is doubtful that you'll be mitigating the rain water from more than a portion, perhaps one side of a roof. Every run off solution makes a small contribution to the overall problem so don't be dissappointed that you can't contain all your storm water.
If we assume that you have a heavy clay soil, water may take many days to pass through sub soil layers if it drains at all. In this case, the portion of impervious surface you can drain to your garden will be smaller and your rain garden will be much shallower and have a larger surface area. You'll probably want to increase the sand percentage of your soil mix. You won't encounter mosquito problems from standing water if all the water is actually down within the sand, compost, soil mix. A combination of evaporation and plant root water uptake will eliminate the rain water that was contained in your rain garden eventually.
Size isn't the only design issue that can cause problems. If the edge of the rain garden slopes off too steeply, you may not be retaining the rain water but merely slowing it down as it moves downhill. Make sure that the edge of the garden is high enough to prevent the water from running in and then right back out. You want to keep that water in the rain garden.
If you are just now considering the use of a rain garden in your yard, careful research will help to avoid making mistakes in your overall design. It's easier and less costly to do it right than to do it over.
We'll save the discussions on maintenance and installation problems for future posts.
Monday, July 23, 2012
Gardening is much easier to learn than computing
Today is July 23rd, 2012 and I have finally been able to access my blog to post again. I've had 'technical' difficulties since October of 2011. Since that time, the number of entries when raingardens is googled has multiplied by 300%! I see raingarden problem entries. There are websites about what problems might occur and how raingardens might not be the answer.
We are going to explore some of these issues in upcoming posts. It really isn't rocket science but just like baking a cake, if you get the proportions or ingredients wrong, the thing flops.
Look for more discussions about creating a raingarden that solves your rainwater collection goals without creating problems.
Cheryl
We are going to explore some of these issues in upcoming posts. It really isn't rocket science but just like baking a cake, if you get the proportions or ingredients wrong, the thing flops.
Look for more discussions about creating a raingarden that solves your rainwater collection goals without creating problems.
Cheryl
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