For those looking to start a new garden this spring, the latest trend is rain gardening.
According to Robin Simmen, community horticultural specialist for Cornell Cooperative Extension, of Riverhead, rain gardens are up and coming with more and more homeowners choosing to create them.
“This is a wonderful trend in gardening,” said Simmen, adding that the art of rain gardening is becoming so popular that Cornell Cooperative has begun to offer rain garden tutorials.
Simmen explained that the premise behind rain gardening is using the water that falls on your property to irrigate a garden that features native plants.
Native plants Simmen said are preferable because they are more pest resistant and require no fertilizer. Native plants also, said Simmen, provide a great habitat for birds, butterflies and other pollinators.
“After two years, you won’t have to water your rain garden,” said Simmen, adding that the garden will require watering until is fully established, which takes between two and three years.
Not only will a rain garden look beautiful, said Simmen, but it will help reduce storm water run off that pollutes harbors and waterways and also diminish the need to use water from the area’s aquifers.
Rain gardens, said Simmen got their start in the Mid-West and have been slowly making their way to the East Coast.
“We are lucky enough that we get a lot of rain,” said Simmen, “and can use this model to reduce nitrogen pollution.”
To create a rain garden, Simmen said there are just a few steps to follow.
• Since rain gardens need to be built where water collects on your property, she recommended scoping out a spot by observing the rain runoff on your property. Check your roof: Does the rain run across your gutters and downspouts? Consider redirecting this runoff to your rain garden. Other spots for rain gardens are near curbs at the base of slops.
• Next, Simmen recommended evaluating the soil to ensure that it will not collect water and turn into a rain pond. For example, she explained that if the soil is made up of sand and silt, it will drain more quickly, as opposed to soil that is made up of clay and could become waterlogged.
• After evaluating the soil, Simmen suggested conducting a percolation test by digging a hole that is about 8” deep and 8” wide and filling it with water. If the water takes more than 24 hours to soak in, Simmen said it will not be a good location for a rain garden. The water, she said, should soak in at a rate of one inch per hour.
• Next, Simmen said, decide the dimensions of your garden. Simmen said typical rain gardens range from 100 to 300 square feet, but a general rule is that for heavy soils, rain gardens should be 30 percent of the size of the roof or ground area that drains into it. The depth, she said, should be between 3 to 8 inches.
• Finally, start planting native species, including flowers such as giant sunflowers, marsh marigolds, swamp milkweeds, spike gayfeathers, blue flags and turtleheads. Ferns that can be planted include ostrich ferns, sensitive ferns, cinnamon ferns and marsh ferns and native shrubs include species such as hazelnut, winterberry, buttonbush, snowberry and fragrant sumac. For a full list of native plants, click here.
