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