Saving a rainy day
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By LINDA ULRICH / For the Lincoln Journal Star
It looks like a pretty typical small garden, but the garden in John and Kim Foote’s front yard is distinctive — it’s a rain garden.
A few months ago, the couple didn’t know much about rain gardens. But after having one installed in their yard, they are excited about their potential to save water, reduce runoff and decrease water pollution.
Although most rain gardens get a lot of sun, theirs is in the shade of a large ash tree.
When it rains, and rains some more, particularly as it has recently, the rain brings needed moisture to lawns and gardens ” and then runs off.
Runoff can cause flooding and pollute waterways. One of the ways to combat those negative impacts on the environment is installation of rain gardens.
Although rain gardens can be built in any landscape, they often are incorporated as small, depressed areas in residential yards and can provide a functional and aesthetic way to reduce stormwater runoff in urban areas. They are designed to temporarily hold and soak in rain that runs off a house roof, driveway or other open area.
Rain gardens are not ponds or wetlands, do not harbor mosquitoes and are actually dry most of the time. Water is often diverted from a nearby downspout but also can be collected from any yard area where water concentrates.
The concept seems simple, but rain gardens must be done right to work.
“There is a lot to the proper design, installation and maintenance of a rain garden, and there are important details that add up to a successful and attractive garden,” said Steven Rodie, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension landscape horticulture specialist. “It’s critical to understand measurements and slope. It (the rain garden) can be undersized, and the location can have too steep a slope or it can be too level.”
An improperly installed rain garden can result in a mud hole instead of a garden, or worse, water in the basement.
Depending on the layout of the home’s gutter system or size of the property, more than one rain garden may be needed to collect all the runoff, Rodie said.
While rain gardens can save money over time, they do require maintenance like any other planting. Supplemental water and periodic weeding may be required for at least the first couple of years until plants are established.
Soil is critical. In a properly sited rain garden, standing water disappears in 24 to 48 hours. If the soil has been stripped, compacted or both, or has a heavy clay content, homeowners need to amend the soil or perhaps look for another garden location.
Plant materials are another important consideration. Rain gardens are typically planted with a mixture of perennial flowers, ornamental grasses and woody shrubs that are adapted to both wet and dry conditions.
Good rain gardens have seasonal color change and appropriately-sized plants, provide habitat and plant diversity, and fit the aesthetic of the landscape, Rodie said.
Together with UNL horticulture colleagues, he has developed an extensive list of plant materials that can work well in Nebraska rain gardens. The list emphasizes native plants, which can develop deep roots and “pretty much take care of themselves once established.”
But, he acknowledges, “accepting and embracing the ‘fuzzier’ natural look of the Nebraska style of landscaping may require a change in the neat and tidy paradigm that many homeowners have become accustomed to.”
The tradeoff, though, is the benefit to the environment as well as an increased appreciation of our region’s natural plant beauty, Rodie said.
The prairie is able to absorb a lot of water efficiently and deeply.
“The ultimate rain garden would work just like nature,” he said.
Rodie and UNL Extension Surface Water Management Specialist Thomas Franti have written a series of three detailed “NebGuides” about designing and installing rain gardens. The guides can be accessed on the Web by going to www.extension.unl.edu. Click on publications, and on the publications page type “rain gardens” in the search box.
After adding some drain tile, “it (the rain garden) captures almost all of the water off the top of the front of the house,” he said. “It seems like a good alternative.”
Art and Glennis Nicolai like their rain garden, too.
“We recyle to help the environment. This is another way,” Glennis Nicolai said. “I’m really happy with the way this turned out. It’s a good addition.”
The Nicolai and Foote rain gardens are part of a rain garden pilot project, a component of the Holmes Lake Water Quality Improvement Program.
The intent is to increase awareness about the small changes in lawn care and landscaping practices that can improve water quality, said Amanda Meder, the project’s water quality educator. “It’s a great project.”
The program has three components: rain garden installations, rain barrels and use of no phosphorus or low phosphorus fertilizer.
So much phosphorus is added to Holmes Lake each year that a 97 percent decrease in phosphorus is necessary to meet water quality standards, Meder said.
“If we can reduce the amount of runoff, we can reduce the amount of pollutants.”
Last spring, homeowners who live in the Holmes Lake Watershed could apply to have a rain garden designed and installed for 10 percent of the cost on a first-come, first-served basis. Homeowners accepted into the program have agreed to maintain their rain garden for five years.
Thus far, 17 homes in the watershed have new rain gardens. One will be completed at Lincoln Christian School this fall and one at Maxey Elementary School next spring. Grants are being sought to provide funding for more rain gardens.
“Each rain garden is reflective of the circumstances of each house and yard. Some are pretty unique,” Meder said.
Proper garden design is key.
“You have to remove soil and add compost or sand so it is labor intensive,” said Matt Morrissey, a Campbell’s Nurseries and Garden Centers landscape designer who has installed the pilot project’s rain gardens.
But, he said, once the garden is sited, the selection of mostly native plant material that performs well in either sun or shade makes the gardens attractive and also easy to maintain.
Another component of the water quality program is free rain barrels, which are 55-gallon plastic drums modified to store and distribute rooftop runoff for non-drinking uses. They, too, reduce the amount of runoff and pollution from residential properties and decrease the need for municipal water.
About 40 percent of residential water use in summer is for washing cars and watering lawns and gardens, which can done with water collected in rain barrels, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
The third component of the water quality program is fertilizer usage. As part of the Holmes Lake Pollution Reduction Project, all Holmes Lake Watershed homeowners received a lawn care survey in the mail. Attached to the survey was a coupon for free no phosphorus or low phosphorus fertilizer.
According to the survey results, 93 percent of the homeowners had not tested their soil to determine fertilizer needs, but 98 percent of the respondents would be willing to switch to a no phosphorus fertilizer.
Soil testing is important because many times soils don’t need nearly as much fertilizer as homeowners put down, which leads to excess nutrients in waterways, Meder said.
Soil tests conducted in the Homes Lake Watershed in 2003 found that no additional phosphorus was needed in any of the samples tested, she said.
Excessive fertilizer or pesticides can reach waterways untreated, creating excess plant growth, fish kills and algae blooms.
The Holmes Lake Watershed Water Quality Improvement Program is funded by the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality and managed by the City’s Public Works and Utilities Watershed Management Division.
For more information, contact Meder at 441-7075 or ameder@lincoln.ne.gov. On the Web, visit www.lincoln.ne.gov; keyword: rain garden.
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