rain garden update

This weekend I spent time digging and digging. The rain garden is one area I tackled which I’ll work on again this week.

This area has been eroded by the downhill flow of water and the 2 pipes attached to the rain gutters. You can see the pipe ends (black) marked by a rock in the middle of the picture. My first step was to build up a sort of berm using the hugelkultur method and plant the raised area. I’ve only planted iris so far.

I need to finish digging out the depression and line it with rocks. The roots from the nearby trees are determining how deep I can dig. I have rocks left over from another drainage area which I finished this weekend which I’ll use here. I dumped the dirt into low spots in the yard nearby.

Next weekend, my husband and I are headed to a native plant sale near Charlottesville. I’ll be looking for plants for the rain garden and the crepe myrtle bed just up the hill. I need to slow the water down to prevent erosion between the 2 beds. Then, we can finally create a grassy area between them.