rain gardens exposed.
Posted on June 30th, 2008 – 9:05 PMBy Jason Hammond
When I saw my first picture of a rain garden I was by no means enthusiastic about some kidney shaped, cedar chipped planting, randomly placed in my yard. However our Architect (Micheal Huber) wasn’t envisioning anything even close to this in his head, when he suggest we use them. Instead he designed these beautiful geometric concrete beds that would work as rain gardens but look more like an extension of our homes design. Today the concrete forms were removed and we got our first glimpse at what I have to say is something really incredible looking. The plywood sheeting that was used to form up the sides left a great texture in the concrete and the open spout that was thought of and built into the mouth of the design (by our concrete guys) looks incredible. They were so cool that Fred Lutz (our main concrete guy) took photos of the work himself and then asked us to let him know when they were completed with the plantings, so he could come back and take some more photos.
One of the Lutz boys knocks out the foam they used to create the overflow spouts in the forms.
I loved seeing this photo that Stacy took, because when I went out to look at the back rain garden this afternoon their was no dirt around which means they cleaned it up and laid the sod down along the side of it.
Next step, planting.
6 Responses to "rain gardens exposed."
Very cool. May steal this from you. heh.
Pamela,
Go ahead steal away, that’s what the ideas are here for. After they were poured I was thinking the form would have made a beautiful cascading sidewalk as well. Maybe with a slated Teak decking on top of it.
Jason
I do like the idea of the ’stepped’ beds to help reduce the velocity of the water flowing downhill on the driveway rain garden. But I don’t understand why the retaining wall is so high relative to the level of the driveway. Will soil in the planting beds slope up to that level? Or maybe it’s just an optical illusion?
Hi Oscar,
Good question and something that I was a bit surprised by as well but, here’s my best attempt to explain.
The height of the beds was tricky. The beds are each 8′ in length so the back left side is level with the corresponding height of the driveway. While that plain remains level moving forward, the driveway slopes towards the street. Meaning, the front of the bed remains level with the back of the bed but ends up being about 8″ above grade, requiring the step down. The right side is left partially open so that water can come into the bed from the driveway and the short return on that side prevents it from pouring out of the bed and back onto the driveway as the rain garden fills up. The Beds will be excavated down and maintain the same grade which is where the spout at the mouth of each bed comes into play to manage overflow, before the water spills back onto the driveway.
I don’t know if my explanation is clear but there actually is some pretty sound thinking around how it will operate.
Jason
Thanks Jason, that helps. With the soil inside the planting beds at (or just below) the level of the overflow spouts, it would be very much below the level of the ground of your front yard, which is more obvious in the first of your photos which shows the top of the retaining wall at the top of the driveway at about the same level as the top of the grass. So you can’t drop the height of the retaining wall and have it still function as a retaining wall. And that may explain why the wall is so high adjacent to the driveway and above the overflow spout — because it maintains the same level as the retaining wall holding back your front yard. Can it be assumed that had your front yard been lower, the level of the wall adjacent to the driveway would have been lower?
Oscar,
Yes, the original drawings from our architect looked slightly different because we weren’t sure as to the slope of the yard at final grade. If it had been a much lower slope the hole at the mouth of the boxes would have most likely just been a notch at the top versus an actually hole and the elevation at the front of the box may have only been a few inches.
Jason
