Rain Garden Update

Rain Garden Update

I was looking back through our website’s old blog postings when I noticed my entry about our new rain garden from September of last year.  I thought it would be a good time to give you an update since then.   We have had a fairly wet second season, with many occasions of heavy rain of an inch or more in a relatively short time period.  You have to be fast to even see any standing water in the rain garden basin; it infiltrates and is drawn up by the plants so well.  A  few of the drier species that I put in the bottom basin had too much moisture and rotted but others have grown so thick that there are no gaps. Ours is a fairly low-tech style of rain garden with just a plastic pipe from the downspout to the basin area.  We also leave a few curved sections of wire fencing and some dried blood baits on the outer, drier shoulder section to make it unappealing to hungry deer.

Late last fall and this spring I put in more plants on the outer section.  This spring we did a thorough weeding in the bottom section about twice before it got too thick to need it. We weeded the top section several times and reapplied some shredded bark mulch.  The garden is in the back of our building so it is out of site most of the time but is a break-time destination for some of the employees here; the color and pollinator action are so compelling that we take part of the day to go and check to see what is happening.

The Anemone patens wolfgangiana or Pulsatilla patens, Pasque flower, bloomed profusely this spring and left tiny seedlings as well. I was thrilled by this plant. Every time I went outside and peered into the blossoms I saw a black bee-like pollinator rummaging around the outer edge of the middle of the flower, presumably where the pollen is. I tried to get his picture but he was too fast for me to get a good shot. Last week I added more Pasque flowers grown in pots this summer, and I want to eventually have hundreds around the building to refresh our spirits after winter.

Some of my other favorites were the Asclepias incarnata, Swamp milkweed, and the Hypericum prolificum, Shrubby St.John’s Wort. Both of these plants bloomed for a long time and were covered with flowers and so many feeding insects that the entire area had an audible hum!

One of three Astagalus crassicarpus, Ground Plum, made a neat little pearly “plum” seed pod that vanished before it fully ripened.

There was also plenty of Asclepias tuberosa, Butterfly Milkweed. I had wondered how well it would like this location but all the roots wintered-over well and bloomed strong except for one. We have lots of Monarchs and Monarch caterpillars and butterflies of all sorts around the Butterfly Weed plants.

New plants that I added last fall as dormant plants:
Aster azureus, Sky Blue Aster, is all budded but not quite blooming.
Aster oblongifolius, Aromatic Aster, has grown well and is just starting to bloom:

Agoseris cuspidata, Prairie Dandelion, grew well, flowered and made lots of seeds.

This spring and summer I have added:
Andropogon scoparius or Schizachyrium scoparium, Little Bluestem, from greenhouse plugs
Baptisia leucophaea, Cream Wild Indigo, from dormant bare root stock
Castilleja coccinea, Indian paintbrush, from greenhouse plugs

Erigeron pulchellus, Robin’s Plantain, from dormant bare-root stock

Monarda Bradburniana, Bradbury’s Monarda, from greenhouse plugs

Next spring I may top off the mulch a bit and then I hope to just enjoy the show, provided we get rain.  I’ll let you know how many Indian Paintbrush make it to bloom.