(MRG Day 2)

The house is roughly 30’x30’ and has two porches (5’x10’ and 7’x15’). The total roof area is about 1050 sq ft, but only half of that drains this direction, so 525 sq ft. At this point, I’m not sure how long the garden will be, so the driveway area it drains isn’t set. I think at most it would cover 50 sq ft of driveway. Total runoff area: 575 sq ft. Rain garden area (green in the aerial) should be about 110 sq ft. As things stand now, all of the drainage is over-the-ground and we don't expect to change that by laying pipe or anything.

The soil is all heavy clay below a certain depth. Percolation test is well over 24 hours. As an additional data point on that, there are times during the spring that the area will have standing water for several days.

Plans and site map (MRG Day 3)

The only solid plan we have for now for plants are a conifer in the southern corner and red osier dogwoods on the wetter side. "Maybes" include sensitive plant, blue flag (or other) iris, and a ground cover sedge TBD

(MRG Days 4/5)

Here's the final layout we decided on. There was some compromise on using familiar/easily-accessible plants, namely the catnip. The overall goal with the layout is to give the best view to the house (to the west/left, see site map in previous post). The plants are generally arranged short-to-tall so that everything is visible from the house (and dry-to-wet to account for the site moisture).

Water conveyance is shown in posts 2 & 3, all overland from roof -> ground -> across lane -> rain garden/turf.

We're intentionally not filling the entire space for 2 reasons:

1. We want to see how much this garden helps with the wetness in this area and how the wetness affects the plants. This isn't the only garden on the property - if this addresses the standing water, then expanding it will be lower priority.

2. We want to let the plants mature and fill in the area naturally-ish and adding plants from other gardens.

Here are the final pictures! The conifer went in first, with much effort (including an hour of excavation):

Thanks in part to the large amount of work it took to dig out for just the conifer, we weren't looking forward to digging out the whole garden. So, feeling impatient with plants already in hand, we decided to try out just sheet mulching (cardboard + mulch over existing turf).

Pre-mulch:

Cardboard with plants laid out:

Mulch delivery:

The final shot:

Now we get to see how it develops. Our hope is that the grass and forbs will spread over the next few years to fill in. And of course we're really hoping that the cardboard does its job and keeps the turf out.

This is wonderful! Good work! You have completed all the necessary requirements to earn your Master Rain Gardener certification. Woot woot!

@HU-683728774 Congratulations on a job well done! Your garden checks all the boxes - it fills a need & blends with the surroundings extremely well so it is a success for both form and function! I have no clue for the location of Washtenaw County but I am familiar with both the Master Gardener program, having taken the extension course myself through WA State University in Clark County. I have a great handbook on how to create a rain garden from that class. There are many places that would benefit from a rain garden here in my PNW!

ETA: I do assume you’re in Great Lakes area somewhere from the forums you’ve posted to.

ETA: @Susan Bryan

Thanks for posting link! Interesting to learn there’s a specific MG designation for Rain Garden expertise.

www.masterraingardener.org