Mid-Atlantic Gardening: Rain Gardens in the Mid-Atlantic, 3 by coleup

coleup wrote:
I'm excited about this. Thanks for starting this thread.

Last weekend I attended a workshop on Raingardens and this weekend I'll be doing "Shoreline Restoration and Native Plants so I have some notes and info to inject.

As I understand it, Rain Gardens are one of the ways to deal with storm water that falls on our yards before it goes out to the Chesapeake Bay water shed , carrying with it pollutants and silt , two of the biggest contributers to Bay decline.

I have one raingarden by my front downspout and another larger project involving an asphalted drainage ditch about 300' long in the front of my property that I am gradually filling in with plants on hand. I estimate that I have decreased runoff about 50% but think I can do better. My fear is that the Roads crews will appear one day and destroy it all and repave it!

Pic 1 ditch before with two fawns in my yard
Pic 2 ditch after planting wineberries Yes, I know, 'invasive') after laying 20' of plastic culvert and lots of wheel barrows full of aged mulch/compost
Pic 3 down spot raingarden in its full Spring lushness!