Thursday, September 22, 2011

Rain Garden Construction

Time to mark out a rain garden to capture the water from the gutters that are about to be installed. This looks like a good place for a garden. Needs to be 48 square feet (which is one tenth of the roof area this downspout covers). Time to start marking the outline with a shovel to begin to remove the turf.
Shasta helpfully supervises.
Keep marking.
There. I now have the boundary delineated. Now we pull the turf out of the interior.

The dirt I remove I use to build up a berm around the outer edge, and a bigger berm between the garden and the sidewalk that I'll use to plant a hedgerow.
Adding some compost to the base of the berm to improve organic matter and water holding.
Dig in the compost a little.
Lay some branches to decay in place, add some soil, then sprinkle with glacial rock dust for good measure.
Now for some serious earth moving.
Shasta keeping a close eye on things.

Hey look, it works!

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