Achin' in the rain

We started out singin' in the rain and ended with achin' in the rain.  Rain garden that is.  Yes, believe it or not we have another eco project going on around the crib.  The nice weather has again helped us to start on another outdoor project.  Mark and I are even helping with this one (shocking and a bit scary).  We did much digging, rock moving and liner laying.  Surprising how we could do this in the past without a lot of trouble.  Not so much anymore.  Now it's work, whine, wince and then wallow in agony with a whiskey.  But with the help of Scott Woodbury from Shaw Nature Reserve, his friend and Scott Powers of Stylecraft Homes (one of the amazing crew members working on the house) we have a really good start on a rain garden.

The idea behind this rain garden is that it will absorb rainfall instead of having the water roll off the land and enter the sewer system.  We are also connecting some of the downspouts from the house, our garage and the neighbor's garage to the rain garden system.  That way even that water, which ordinarily barely even touches any ground, also will not enter the sewer system.  We don't have the system set up to be used as irrigation, but in the future we plan to add some sort of storage system that will fill with rainwater from the other downspouts not used in the rain garden.  That stored water can then be used for irrigation.  We probably won't use rain barrels, because they only hold 50 gallons and we would need a lot of them to really make a difference.

Our rain garden will receive water from rain falling directly on it and from the downspouts.  The downspout water will flow through a tube and bubble out like a natural spring.  It will then flow down a stream bed and into a pond.  The pond itself will have the capacity to hold a large percentage of the water from the downspouts during an average rainfall.  But if we have more rain or frequent rain, the pond will overflow into the rain garden planted next to it.  This pond and rain garden system will have the capacity to absorb the rain that falls on it directly plus 60-70% of the water that hits the roofs of 3 buildings.  It will do this even for a 2 inch rain event, which is twice the normal, average rain fall amount.  Then finally, if we have even more rain, the water will flow from the rain garden through a pipe to the sewer system.  That should be a pretty rare phenomenon.

Sorry to disappoint those neighbors who thought we were putting in a swimming pool!  Here are some pictures:

A view of the pond.  The spring that is fed by the downspout water is out of the picture to the left.  The wooden structures to the left and right will be boardwalks that will allow us to walk over the stream (on the left) and through the rain garden (on the right).

Here's an example boardwalk from the Japanese garden at Missouri Botanical Garden 

that resembles what we are trying to build.

Pond filling ceremony using a bottle of spring water.  A hose will be used for the rest!

Our first pond visitor.  A fearless Robin made a foray to the water's edge only minutes 

after we started filling the pond.

Onward and upward,
Mark, Mark and Isabel