Building a rain garden in Houston

Rain gardens are great for holding water away from the house and for creating an environment for healthy water loving plants.

Keys:

They can be any size, we often made them about 150sqft to 200sqft. Bigger will retain more water.

Over time as the plants mature they will be able to process more water after rainfalls.

Consider having an overflow built into the berm that goes toward the street so that water doesn’t back up toward the house.

Dig out the perimeter
Pile dirt from the basin on the berm. Ideally 6-10″ tall
Pile up soil on berm ideally 6-8″ tall – we went a little tall on this one
Level bottom using water as guide
Basin should be 10 to 12 inches deep – shovel blade deep is good
Cover everything with 2-3 inches of compost – fresh food for the plants
Cover everything with 3-6 inches of mulch
Place water loving plants in the basin
Plant natives and edibles on the berm

Mulch and compost

Tell Danny at Farm Dirt Compost that Andrew sent you. They have mulch and really good garden quality compost.

Native Plant List

Treesearch Farms is a great supplier of native plants and rain garden plants. You might spend $200-500 on plants for a 150 sqft garden

  • Artemisia
    • Aster
    • Bald Cypress
    • Bananas
    • Bee Balm
    • Black Eyed Susan – plant on berm
    • Butterfly Weed
    • Cast Iron Plant
    • Cone Flower – plant on berm
    • Daylily – plant in basin
    • Dwarf Papyrus
    • Eve’s Necklace
    • Horse Herb
    • Iris- plant in basin
    • Lousiana Iris – plant in basin
    • Purple Cone Flower – – plant on berm
    • Purple Hear
    • Rain Lilly – plant in basin
    • Ruella Katie
    • Sedge
    • Sedum
    • Spider Lily
    • Spiderwort
    • Swamp Rose Mallow
    • Texas Columbine
    • Texas Star Hibiscus – plant in basin
    • Yarrow

Learn More

https://watersmart.tamu.edu/rain-garden/

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