As I’ve posted about before here, I love Rain Gardens. Last year I removed a patch of lawn in my backyard, dug out a shallow basin, and extended two roof downspouts into it. When it rains (which it does a lot here in western Oregon), the garden fills with water and slowly infiltrates into the ground. It is an effective storm water solution and is mesmerizing to watch when it rains.
I’d love to build another one in my front yard, but I’ve pretty much planted to capacity already, as you can see below.
I removed my front lawn a few years ago and have never regretted it. But I’m still aching to expand and plant more wildlife habitat. What to do?
I talked to my neighbor! Above you can see that there was arborvitae planted between my yard and my neighbor’s yard. They are OK shrubs and I appreciate that they are evergreen, but they isolated our two yards from each other. They looked and felt like a real barrier. Well, we got to talking and decided to remove them. But we didn’t stop there…
We built a Rain Garden next to my neighbor’s driveway! This narrow patch was covered with grass before and trapped water in their driveway- a lot of water. So we removed the grass, dug a swale, added some native plants and some river rock and presto- yet another elegant storm water solution that will be a beautiful landscape feature.
Above is the view from inside my house- I caught a bit of my reflection in the bottom right of the photo. Instead of a view of arborvitae, there is now a storm water swale that will function as an extension of my wildlife garden- now a shared wildlife garden.
I am very lucky that I have neighbors that wanted to collaborate on a project like this. Hopefully you do too. Talk to them and make it happen!
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Wow – what a gorgeous front garden! Very cool that you and your neighbor agreed on the rain garden!
We have a swale near the back of our property that’s been here for decades. Besides the interesting planting opportunities, it’s a beloved watering hole for wildlife. There’s a section that’s wet all year, and I sure hope the birds and other visitors keep gobbling up the mosquito larvae.
Linda recently posted..Wildflower Wednesday
That’s awesome, Mike–and I agree, that’s a fantastic front yard!
About the closest to garden interaction I get with my neighbors is a constant stream of visitors from my neighbor’s beehive. They’re more than welcome, but I don’t think I can get the little guys to dig a rain garden…
I’m building a rain garden right now. It’s not a collaboration project with my neighbor, but it is close to the property line and is designed to service both houses.
My county government here in Maryland offers a reimbursement program to those who install rain gardens. I’m not sure how common this is, but those interested in building a rain garden should investigate to see if their area offers a similar program. There are some paperwork hoops to jump through, and you need to save all your receipts, but my county will reimburse up to $1,200. I haven’t finished the process yet, but it seems worthwhile. Just imagine: somebody else footing the bill for your more plants!
Mike, super job with the use of space, interaction with your neighbor, wise use of water, and including native plants. Every neighborhood needs a Mike Bezner brainstorming shared garden space. Bravo and thanks for sharing.
Pat Sutton recently posted..Spring Cleanup in the Wildlife Garden
Absolutely brilliant. It really does look fabulous.
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Inspiring and hopeful!!
Carol Duke recently posted..Spring Wildflowers and Other Wild Wings Scattered About
Mike – an awesome and inspirational partnership! One.no..TWO backyards at a time! Keep it going!
Ellen Sousa recently posted..NWF and ScottsMiracle-Gro? No!
Thanks everyone! The best part is how excited my neighbors have gotten about the project.
Mike B. recently posted..Blue Bottle Fly
Mike, kudos to you for figuring out how to create more habitat and also for getting your neighbor involved! That is the way that more wildlife will benefit, and your neighbors too, when they learn how simple it is to create beautiful gardens that also support native wildlife
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