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| UNCA Rain garden (with Umbrella leaf magnolia) |
I've been thinking about rain garden projects lately. We'd like to be able to demonstrate a rain garden (along with our rain barrel and cistern) adjacent to the education building (at the botanical garden where I work).
We've definitely had water challenges over the years in this space. The metal "Butler" building that comprises our education center (adults above and Nature Center below) initially had no gutters, leading to moisture issues on the ground level.
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| River birch and cinnamon fern (UNCA) |
When I first started at the Garden, the volunteers and I were faced with periodically flooded conditions in what was the 'work' area at the time. Not pleasant at all.
So now we've diverted the roof water to a very large cistern on one side, and a rain water/landscape drain on another side, and we have a final open gutter downspout to divert to a rain garden, hopefully, that we'll install in the fall.
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| another view of the UNCA rain garden plantings |
Enjoy the images of UNCA rain gardens for inspiration!
Interesting the Cinnamon fern and Crape Myrtles next to each other, light conditions are different for each.
ReplyDeleteRain gardens are really the way to go. Looking forward to hearing more about yours.
The river birches resemble crape myrtles in the photo -- you're right that you wouldn't have crape myrtles next to cinnamon ferns!
ReplyDeleteLisa
Wow - that is terrific. I'm collecting rain garden info because our church has a dirt parking lot that turns into a lake when there is a heavy rain. A rain garden is thought to be a solution.
ReplyDeleteI love seeing these show up more and more often...really is wonderful when something can be both useful and beautiful!
ReplyDelete