hello ....

arent there any peeps running the program.. who might be of help??? .. am i wrong to think this is thru the washtenaw county extension office???

i dont understand the facts in the back corner .. doesnt it all run to the front where the downspout is???

you might be able to dig a french drain at the patio edge.. and manipulate where the patio runoff goes ...

and my last thought .. lol .. i guessing kids arent involved.. because your chosen location.. with my kids.. back in the day.. would have made it the best mud pit ever.. lol .. are you sure you want to do it right there ...??? .. i suspect you want to look at your garden from the patio chairs ... but take other things into consideration ...

and keep in mind water collection so near the foundation. and basement ...

ken

We did a similar project at our house. Buried a pvc downspout at the correct angle for drainage until it was 8 feet from the house. Then added a drainage tile/french drain kind of trench until it all ended up in a dry well, which does double duty as a place where we put our fire pit when we have campfires. I had the gravel so it wasn't a cost for me to build one. They also sell dry well tanks, but they are not cheap . . . you can also build them with landscape cloth and gravel, that's what we did. We buried the downspout carrying the rain so that we could still walk around and use the area. Note the place where there is an open drain in the gravel circle. That's for the overflow. This is the common way of rerouting water to a lower spot. You'll find lots of tutorials online for doing it.

Although our drain system is buried, it could be above ground. Also, the size of our dry well is not large enough to absorb all the runoff, but we deal with the excess. More rain garden planned for around the fire pit plus adding two additional downspouts with rain gardens adjacent. One has to run under the deck though, so it's a work in progress. The other one is going first into a rain barrel so that's on hold too until the deck one gets finished . . . Ideally the drain should be farther away, but hubs was sick and tired of digging in our gravely soil. For the fire pit it should have been further out but we wanted to keep the plastic drain cover away from the hot fire pit to didn't put it in the center. If you don't want a fire pit, the center would be best. You don't have to have as much gravel as we did, it could be a garden.

Edited to add that you can just have the overflow spout lead to a rain garden, not a dry well filled with gravel like we did. That's how to get the water away from your house, bury a drainage pipe and have it come out where you want it. You have to pitch it right for it to come out. That's your "rain garden" absorption zone, where the pipe comes out to surface. You could also have the pipe above ground, but then you will have a big drainage pipe running across your yard . . . As a side note, my dry well is not big enough to absorb all the water. So the whole area around it is the "rain garden" and is being landscaped appropriately. The main things you want to do are A. Drain the water away from your house. B. Deal with the water as it arrives wherever you have drained it to. In your case, since it is in the middle of the back yard, that's where you want to think about landscaping so handle the water, which will flow out some times, and not flow out at other times. Same as your downspout, just farther away from the house, which is good for keeping the area around your house dry.

Think of a "rain garden" as just landscaping that can handle intermittent periods of wet with the drainage, and then dry. The larger area you can spread the water out to, the less stress on any individual plant in the overall picture.

Candace, Ken makes some good points. Consider how you want to use the space where the rain garden is. It could even have wood chips covering it and a playscape for kids. Or be a "viewing garden" from the patio, or you could plant blueberries and some other wet feet tolerant trees and shrubs and grow some food there, or it could be a wildlife viewing garden or a cutting garden or whatever. The main rule is that the area has to be designed to hold water for a while until it infiltrates, so whatever you put there has to be able to tolerate some standing water. But not forever. How long depends on a lot of factors, when and how much rain you get and your soil. But make sure to also plan for enjoying the space and whatever level of maintenance you feel comfortable with. It does not need to be high maintenance but it could be. You have a lot of flexibility.

HI Candace -

Looks like a good spot! Just make sure you are at least 10-15 feet away from your foundation.

On another - less crucial but more aesthetic note - make sure it is in a spot you will enjoy looking at it, and won't trip over it!

Imagine sitting on your patio and seeing plants there. Does it make you happy? If so, it is a good spot.

Looks like you won't have any trouble getting water there. Good choic!

By the way - Houzz does not notify me when someone posts here. So send me an e-mail and I will make sure to check out your comments!