Friend of Gardening--Rain, Rain, Don't Go Away

Garden hoses in my garden this summer have been given a pretty decent rest, but I don't expect this will be a permanent state of affairs. In light of a garden's constant need for nourishment and moisture, and the knowledge that the best moisture of all is delivered directly from Mother Nature, plant-lovers should always be on the alert for a way to take full advantage of rainfall that comes our way. So where do you start?

With a rain garden, of course! Now what, readers may ask, is a rain garden? Do you crazy people think you can grow raindrops and thunderstorms, or what? Not exactly, so let's begin with a little bit of an introduction to rain garden technology. Pavement and buildings have one thing in common. They are designed to direct water away from areas where we do not want it, be that the interior of our homes or the walkways and streets underfoot. These are great developments and have cleaned up our lives considerably. There is a downside, however, and it lurks below the surface, in the form of overwhelmed storm sewers and large areas of growing space that cannot take advantage of rainfall.

A visit to the Morton Arboretum this summer gave me my first introduction to a new concept in parking lot pavement, found in the form of interlocking blocks that allow rainfall to filter through the pavement and slowly soak in, as opposed to running off. Our guide pointed out that the biggest problem with this might be for women in spike heels. Not being someone who wears spike heels, I just found the parking lot unusually attractive.

In the spirit of wise water use in the garden, the Christian County Master Gardeners voted several months ago to plant a rain garden at the Extension Office on North Webster Street. Jenniffer House did a lot of the legwork when it came to searching out inhabitants for our garden, to be located on the south-facing wall of the building. Preferred rain garden plantings feature native plants, but not necessarily the ones you might think of. We were NOT looking for plants that preferred a lot of soil moisture, as the name might imply, but rather plants that can stand up to the whims of Illinois weather.

Those whims include rain, the lack thereof, fluctuating temperatures, and a whole host of soil types and light exposure situations. Plants that thrive in dryer soil on the open prairie, such as bluestem grasses, prairie blazing star, and coneflower, dwindle near forests and savannahs, giving way to spiderwort and native violets, plants that are more adapted to partial shade and moister soils. Illinois prairies are not created equal. Some things do better on sandy soil found in areas known as "hill prairies, while others truly do flourish in the boggy situations where ground water persists well beyond spring rains.

The rain part of the equation means that plants can be placed near the downspout of the building. They need to have the capability to absorb water running off the roof during the rain, using it efficiently until the next rain without the need for a lot of additional watering. The light exposure for the garden is the next most important factor in choosing what to place in your rain garden.

Our garden is on a south wall—so full-sun tolerance is a must. For Illinois, that translates into the prairie plants that once covered most of the state's open areas. The painter's palette for prairies includes pinks, yellows, oranges, purples, and blues, as well as a variety of grass types.

The Christian County Master Gardener team pitched in with a vengeance. All of us usually have plants to spare, so we started looking around while Ed Rees and Sharron Taft got busy stripping sod and working up the plot. Paying attention to the location of underground electricity and correctly directing downspouts to put the water into the garden rather than on the pavement was in order. Ed's skills were invaluable and mid-June found us with a plot ready to plant.

Plant we did. Sweet flag iris from Nina Branum, butterfly weed from Jean Shuler, Joe Pye weed from Midge Kendle, and spiderwort from Sandy Sample were just a few of the plants that arrived on Friday morning, June 19. Watering cans, everyone's favorite planting trowels, newspaper, and mulch abounded in the parking lot.

As the mulch went down, the plants were watered in and the sidewalk got swept. Geri Niemann set about taking inventory of what we had, picking our brains about names, and writing up temporary tags, so we wouldn't lose track of what we had. It was a hot day with a brisk wind, but the work went fast and the fellowship was worth the sweat and sore muscles.

And then, the summer's only heat wave began. About two weeks of 90+ temperatures baked our babies, while they hung their heads and depended on the team to help get started. Rain garden or not, new plants in hot places need some help to get off the ground. Ed was a devoted visitor, driving over from Kincaid on a regular basis. Monday duties at the Help Desk for everyone included weeding and watering. We've been rewarded with a rain garden that's off to a great start. It's hard to remember now, beholding the lushness of the plants, how forlorn they looked back in June, with most of their tops shorn to relieve stress on struggling root systems.

Horticulture advisor Gary Letterly is featuring the garden in the first of his Back Yard Garden Walks, Monday, September 21, from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. The Master Gardeners would like to invite county residents and visitors to come to the Extension Office that evening for a look at our rain garden. We'll be seeing you there!

Written by Gwen Podeschi, Christian County Master Gardener