Rain garden maintenance has emerged as one of the big hurdles to expanding the use of green stormwater solutions. You build it. The rain comes. Then what?
In some ways, the water-absorbing gardens are not much different than other landscaping features. They need weeding, some summer irrigation, and basic pruning. But they also require more nuanced care.
The standard “mow, blow, and go” strategy that sends some commercial landscapers whacking plants and lawns with mowers or hedge trimmers, then revving up the leaf blower to blast the ground clean just won’t cut it. Rain gardens need lusher plantings to catch rain in their leaves and branches and healthy roots to help water soak into the ground. The green infrastructure often features a thicker cover of water-trapping mulch. Good rain garden maintenance means saying ‘no’ to Edward Scissorhands-inspired pruning and bare soil. It requires attention to how the water flows into—and sometimes out of—the garden, and how quickly the water seeps into the ground.
To help solve these maintenance challenges, some smart stormwater folks in Oregon have released “Field Guide: Maintaining Rain Gardens, Swales and Stormwater Planters (2013),” a handy how-to for keeping rain gardens functional as well as beautiful. The guide opens with specific recommendations on what tools you’ll need for rain garden maintenance, gives cautionary notes—and scary photos!—of some of the injury-inducing weeds lurking out there, and provides explicit instructions on how to maintain the gardens’ stormwater treating capacity.
The illustrated manual that I featured last week, “Rain Garden Handbook for Western Washington: A Guide for Design, Installation, and Maintenance” from Washington State University, is a perfect companion to this new guide from Oregon. The Washington handbook addresses maintenance, but the Oregon guide provides a more detailed, in-depth examination of how to recognize and fix a multitude of rain garden troubles.
The Field Guide includes a calendar showing which season is best for different maintenance activities such as weeding, re-planting, and pruning. It has a check list for maintenance crews to use in the field to make sure they don’t miss any important steps. And there are clear photos and descriptions of a variety of rain garden woes. Is erosion creating a system of mini rivers draining into the rain gardens? Try erosion-control matting and refilling the channels with top soil. Is sediment creating sandy dams blocking the flow of water into the garden? Get your rake or shovel and get digging.
The document was a team effort by Clackamas County Water Environment Services, Clean Water Services, East Multnomah Soil and Water Conservation District, Green Girl LDS, Metro, City of Portland Environmental Services, Pacific Landscape Management, and Pacific Sports Turf.
Oregon stormwater experts are recognized leaders in the maintenance arena. The city of Portland program is so well conceived that one Puget Sound county has made multiple trips to check out their program, even taking photos of the Portland maintenance trucks in order to replicate them back home.
If you’re looking for still more maintenance inspiration, Montgomery County in Marylandhas a comprehensive website with strategies for healthy rain gardens. Additionally, the University of New Hampshire Stormwater Center has some helpful maintenance tips and check lists.
So no excuses, folks. Put down your power hedge clippers and diagram for topiary ducks, grab your Rain Garden Handbook and Field Guide, and get your gardens growing.
Debbie Smith
Thank you so much for your coverage on rain gardens, and for including links to the WA and OR guides. As a local stormwater educator, I would prefer that links to sites outside of western WA and OR not be included. Conditions in other parts of the country can be too different from ours. They may contain some helpful information, but they may also contain information that does not apply to our area.
Lisa Stiffler
Thanks for your feedback, Debbie! It seems like there might be some universal truths about rain gardens and other green infrastructure that can be useful to all, but indeed, much of the information is very specific to soil, weather, and native plants.
Jerome Parker
Invaluable information! However, would be useful to inform on how to obtain printed copies.
Lisa Stiffler
Hi Jerome. I contacted field guide contributors Maria Cahill, a.k.a. Green Girl, and Candace Stoughton with East Multnomah Soil and Water Conservation District. It turns out that printed copies are not available, though Stoughton said they tried to make sure the document was properly formatted for easy printing from online. If you want to reach Stoughton directly, drop me an email.
Cari Simson
Thanks Lisa for writing this and sharing the OSU guide.
Maintenance is a major issue, especially for residents who want “green” solutions but don’t have the accompanying green thumb. With so many Seattle homeowners electing to install rain gardens with RainWise rebates, we need to keep maintenance in mind so the installations continue to function properly.
Stewardship Partners, WSU Master Gardeners, Resource Media, and Urban Systems Design are working on a maintenance guide that’s designed entirely for non-gardeners, with simple steps and lots of images, and links to more info. We have a planned release date of mid-September and will keep you in the loop!
Lisa Stiffler
Love it! That’s a great idea. Luckily the plants being used are often native and hopefully low maintenance. It’s not like these are rain garden roses or something equally finicky and disease prone. Do let us know!
Amy Waterman
Lisa,
Thank you for your detailed reporting on rain gardens and green infrastructure. Working in the field of green infrastructure and trying to get projects in the ground, it’s great to be able to have your help keeping up with what’s going on elsewhere and what new resources are out there!
I am curious how we might be able turn the work of installing and maintaining rain gardens and other green infrastructure into an opportunity for all those out there who could use meaningful work and/or training.
Keep up the good work!
Lisa Stiffler
The jobs side of this is a great thought. I’ve heard folks raise the idea, sort of a stormwater version of job training for energy retrofits. So far I haven’t seen any specific programs being proposed. If anyone has heard about work in this area, let us know!
Stacy Aleksich
There are 8 training opportunities coming up for landscape professionals for rain garden design, maintenance and installation throughout the Sound!
http://www.12000raingardens.org/get-involved/events/
For those working in Snohomish County, our registration is already live: https://snorain2.eventbrite.com/
Please spread the word about these great opportunities to help people break into the rain garden work force!