Before and After

A significant change in under one year! The space is easily maintained; little to trim/mow; many more birds, butterflies, insects; rainwater isn't flushed down the sewer; and its beautiful!

bugs!

Already in under a year the amount of insects in the side yard has grown tremendously. There are several kinds of bees including giant bumble bees. And just last night I saw a preying mantis among the Black Eyed Susans. I have also seen a few kinds of catepillars, but no butterflies as of yet...

Painting the bridge

The bridge is now a red that matches the rest of the house! It is a drastic improvement and adds yet more color the blooming side yard. The Black-Eyed Susans are stealing the show right now, but the Swamp Milkweed (light purple) is putting on more height and the bees love it. The Butterfly weed (orange) has made a come back with the cool, cloudy days gone. The Blue Lobelia has arrived and contrasts very nicely with the yellow Susans. Also, the first Cardinal Flower is beginning to appear in its scarlet red.

The tour is this weekend, so hopefully all will be in top shape.

Swamp Milkweed in bloom

Side Yard Rain Garden Plant List

The plant list has grown since the initial design. Here is the list: Wild Columbine – Aquilegia canadensis
Wild Ginger – Asarum canadense
Swamp Milkweed – Asclepias incarnata
Purple Milkweed – Asclepias purpurascens
Butterfly Weed – Asclepias tuberosa
Smooth Blue Aster – Aster laevis
White False Indigo – Baptisia alba
Blue Wild Indigo – Baptisia australis
Blue Wood Sedge – Carex flaccosperma
Frank's Sedge – Carex frankii
Pennsylvania Sedge – Carex pensylvanica
Redbud – Cercis canadensis
Northern River Oats – Chasmanthium latifolium
Green and Gold – Chrysogonum virginianum
Eared Coreopsis – Coreopsis auriculata
Bottlebrush Grass – Elymus hystrix
Wild Geranium – Geranium maculatum
Dwarf or Crested Iris – Iris cristata
Copper Iris – Iris fulva
Spicebush – Lindera benzoin
Cardinal Flower – Lobelia cardinalis
Great Blue Lobelia – Lobelia siphilitica
Trumpet Honeysuckle – Lonicera sempervirens
Virginia Bluebells – Mertensia virginica
Bayberry – Myrica pensylvanica
Royal Fern – Osmunda regalis
Black-eyed Susan – Rudbeckia hirta
Little Bluestem – Schizachyrium scoparium
Showy Goldenrod – Solidago speciosa
Celandine Poppy – Stylophorum diphyllum

Purpose of the Side Yard Garden

Here is what the Side Yard Garden hopes to suggest:
* One does NOT have to mow side yards (especially ones at 12%)
* All kinds of spaces, even side yards, can be beautiful and low maintenance
* Gardens don't have to be a lot of work to be beautiful
* Native plants can create wonderful gardens
* Rain water is a resource not a hazard

Swamp Milkweed - Asclepias incarnata

Swamp milkweed and Black eyed Susans should bloom soon

I am seeing a slight bit of color on the Swamp Milkweed (Asclepias incarnata). It is different than the Butterflyweed that is orange and shorter in height. The Swamp Milkweed is already twice as tall (about 30" right now) and will bloom purple. It seems to do better with wetter and part shade conditions. In this location, it catches the shadow of the house for most of the day and it is closer to the bottom of microbasin 1.

Primrose cut back

The Primroses have mostly been cut back. They were overhanging the narrow grass strip that allows one to pass from the front yard to the back. I tried holding them back with a string line, but the plants were too top heavy. Some of the plants have grown to five feet in height! There are still quite a few that are left and are still blooming away. They seem to do fine as a cut flower by the way even when left in 80 degree heat. I expect there to be quite a bit of regrowth over the summer, so it should all work out. I think that primrose needs tall supporting plants around it to hold up to heavy wind and rain. The first plant of this species I have is supported by a chain link fence -- it also hasn't bloomed yet so the additional weight isn't there yet.

Primrose tip over

Well more rain tonight. The micro-basins held well. The fourth basin only filled up half way. The primrose really took a beating. They are about 4 1/2 feet tall right now, bent to get more sun and beginning to bloom. The heavy downpour just knocked them over -- way over. I've staked them up as best as I could, but they may need to be cut back. Bottom line, they need to be in full sun surrounded by plants that can help support their excessive height.

Rain in the garden

I've disconnected two of my downspouts from the sanitary system and directed them to the micro-basins. Saturday (June 17th) night's storm was the first test of the all four basins with downspout water. And it performed well! Pictured is the bottom basin (Basin 4) at the height of the storm. It's not even a quarter full. The other true test was the speed it infiltrated the ground. And when I checked about twenty minutes after the storm, there was no water in any of the basins! Sunday afternoon (June 18th) storm was interesting because the rain barrel was full. All the water passed through the overflow and down into the basins (3 &4). Still no issues, but I think I'll need a splash plate for the overflow or a pipe to get the water down to the basin with less force.

Primrose

The Evening Primrose is now blooming. It is somewhat irratic which ones are blooming first, but hopefully the rest will get the idea and do their thing. In the photos you can see how they open up more as evening comes.

Rain Barrel

The rain barrel was installed tonight! It took 45 minutes to get its height right, disconnect the downspout, cut off the sewer connection (the yellow thing in the photo), cap it, then connect up the rain barrel and check that it was stable. About the only tool it too was a hacksaw to shorten the downspout. If you look closely at the rain barrel, one can see that there is a regular spigot at the bottom (hooking up the garden hose) and an overflow at the top. The barrel holds 58 gallons of water which is a pretty good amount.

Weather Forecasting

Here are some links to my favorite weather sites. Just the facts, not hype: NWS Louisville 7-day forecast
National Weather Service Climate Prediction Center
The Weather Channel Forecast Maps

last plants

The last plants were placed in the garden. Blue Wood Sedge was the last go in due to a expansion in the design to include a fourth "micro-basin". Also one of the downspouts was disconnected from the sewer system and directed to that micro-basin. A chance of rain is expected Wednesday so we will see how it all holds up.

Screens

The screens of the utilities and A/C unit went up Saturday. There will be Trumpet Honeysuckle growing up them soon enough which will help screen the screens...

Jane House transformation

Here is the transformation of the Jane House.

"If we have inherited a world that is so disjointed by human action that it now requires our intervention, we will have to learn to accept that we must manage it on the basis of Nature's systems and not our standards" ~ David Hancocks A Different Nature

A few current photos

Storing water

Ok, the side yard project is a vegetated swale with check dams rather than a true rain garden. Side yards, even if they are flat, do not typically have the space to store all the rain water from the roofs. In this case the water is damed up in the channel that runs down the slope between the houses. The water that does infiltrate helps nurish the plants (they can tolerate the momentary ponding) and then any remaining water is let out more slowly than it would have occured otherwise.

The other idea this project tests is vertical storage. Basically taking draintile to create a vertical column where water can be stored. It increases the capacity to store water while increasing the infiltration. After attempting this, I've realized one really needs a deep hole for this to work efficiently. Mine are only a foot and a half deep. It is still a great idea for small spaces.

Strawberries

The strawberries are finally doing their thing. The cool, wet spring delayed their ripening. But now we have giant slugs! Strawberry plants do make a great groundcover. Here is a short list of other lawn alternatives:

* Wild Ginger

* Hostas

* Sedum

* Liriope (Monkey grass)

* Black-eyed Susans

* Sedges

Memorial Day

The Oakleaf Hydrangea is beginning to bloom. I couldn't resist this photo with the flag on Memorial Day.

In search of: no mowing or watering...

So last June I embaked on a 12 hour design binge to decrease the amount of mowing and watering in my side yard. The design was entered in the Air Pollution Control Board Low-Maintenance Landscape Competition. And they gave me the go-ahead to make it happen! So now I'm in the midst of "building" the garden...