So, my options. Lots of them, quite likely all involving tree roots. Option 1 - Rain gardens for sidewalk drainage. Where our front walk flows down to the sidewalk, and also just because of grade, water stands. It does this from the center of the house over to the driveway, and if there is a real storm, it overflows into the driveway, then the street. This also happens on the other side of the driveway, so I'd probably try to do one long, narrow garden in front of the sidewalk, up to the flower boxes, and a bigger one on the north side of the driveway between the sidewalk and the street. Option 2 - Backyard gutter garden. Again, there is a tree root issue, and anything here would likely have to be hand dug (by which I mean with a hand-held spade, not a shovel). Our backyard is on Chalmer's Drain (I always thought it was Mallets Creek, but it appears not??) - and there isn't much in the way of a run-off issue back there. The waterway is lined with caged rocks, and I suspect my back garden is already acting as a filter between the house/garage and the creek. Just feels like, since I've already got a long gutter clearing the water away from the house, this wouldn't be the most helpful rain garden. Option 3 - Driveway Dig Out Right now I have a downspout that comes out from the corner of the house about 3' into a flower bed. The flower bed helps retain some water, but it isn't dug in more than a few inches. Problem here is two-fold. The ground for the first 4 feet near the house is full of gravel. And then, tree roots. In an ideal world, I'd dig out a drainage path from the house-bed, under the walkway, into the other bed, and build the rain garden inside that bed. Then I'd put in the black flexi-pipe and cover the over up to the rain garden. My helper isn't going to want to help dig out that much... so I'm avoiding this, although I'd like to see that water come out further from the house, and need to do something about that regardless.

I have been doing some research about plastic downspouts and you may not want to bury one. From what I have read online at various places, almost all plastic pipes crush or fill with debris sooner or later--mostly sooner--and once buried you don't know they are not working right. And it's a pain to dig up and replace them even if you know they are failing, which you usually don't know. I've read it's better to invest the money for the rigid professional spouts or to just put up with ugliness and lie them on the grass or dirt surface or sorta half way dig them in but not cover them up. If you have better info, please share as I am still contemplating my downspout situation (currently have ugly plastic one on top of ground).

And a month later, I'm back with an update and questions. :) Finally located most of my needed plants a couple of weeks ago, and then it took almost 2 weeks to do all the digging. Here is my husband working on the digging, with some help from my cat, lol: Here it is leveled and ready for planting: The inlet freshly installed, but not yet buried: And here it is mostly planted, with some empty spaces left for the plants I have yet to acquire (and the edging for that top portion): Which brings me to my questions. :) 1. If you look closely, you can see at the bottom of the most recent photo the edge of the concrete walk. The berm pretty much starts right at the walk, which I did not plan but it seemed like it needed to happen that way because that edge of the garden is about 3 inches lower than the top edge. (Top of the photo.) I felt like it needed that extra reinforcement, instead of leaving the 6" flat at the edge. You can see the blue eyed grass I have planted there, BUT...I think I need more? It seems like if it rained really hard right now the edge of the berm would start to erode away. 2. Take a look at this photo, I tried to take it so you could closely see the inside of the berm: (I just noticed the photobombing golfball in there, lol...I don't even know, lol) So the depth of the berm is about 8-9". I'm worried that the whole thing is going to erode *down into the bottom* even with the mulch on it. So my question is this: Can I mulch this with leaves instead of something more chunky, like woodchips? I'm thinking the leaves, if I water them down after placing them, will hold things in place better. Should I plant more in the sides of the berm? Thoughts? Thank for any and all ideas. :)

I also considered having three smaller pool areas that overflow from one to the other to the next. Kind of like larger scale Green Infrastructure. And, while I still like this idea, It feels like a lot of work and maintenance. And I want something that will be able to exist pretty much on its own with minimal care from me once installed.