Install a Rain Garden Now!

After a record setting several weeks of rain, you might be looking at your overflowing rain barrels or just the puddles spread throughout your yard, wondering if there is a better way to manage the water you are being gifted. Rain gardens are one solution! They help water infiltrate deep into the ground instead of running amok on your property and in the street. What is a rain garden and how does it work?

Rain Gardens

A rain garden is an area in your yard specifically designed to hold storm water, infiltrate it slowly into the ground, and treat the water using soil and vegetation. It is an excavated or landscaped area that is filled with a special mix of moist-tolerant plants, and heavy mulching. In the poorest draining areas the ground can be excavated and the soil or hard-pan replaced with a more absorbent soil mix.

How does it work? All the rain landing on your roof, driveway, and lawn is directed through down spouts or channels in your yard to the rain garden. There it is absorbed by the soil and roots. During especially heavy rains, there can be standing water or even directed overflows to another part of the yard or storm sewers. Good planning is key to making sure your rain garden is an adequate size for the amount of rain water that falls on your property.

Water should go through the ground, not over it

Storm water from our streets and homes causes erosion, flooding, and carries pollutants to our waterways. Rain gardens are an excellent way to bring to life the permaculture principle, "Slow It, Spread It, Sink It." Rain is transported away from your foundation and infiltrated into the soil. The soil and roots decontaminate the water as it seeps in, thus helping improve the health of our shared waters.

An attractive landscape

In addition to their function in dealing with water, rain gardens also create a natural and healthy habitat in your backyard that is attractive to wildlife. They create homes in your yard for birds, insects, frogs, and newts!

Seattle's RAINWISE Program! The rain garden and cistern rebate program for King County and the City of Seattle is getting better all the time. If you are considering a rain garden or cistern, it is possible that it would be ENTIRELYsubsidized by this program! They cover costs up to several thousand dollars, depending on the details of the installation. The average installation in one of the eligible neighborhoods is covered at about 80% of all installation costs. Just give us, an approved RainWise contractor, a call to find out if you are eligible for this amazing program.