Rainwater Management Project in Columbia
Rainwater Management Project in Columbia
This client had a huge issue with rainwater build up in the front of his home, with the water reaching his front door in the heaviest rains. With such a large water problem we made sure the client knew that we would need to implement many solutions and that they wouldn’t remove the water issue entirely. The client also had a company install a pump to pump off excess water that the rain gardens wouldn’t absorb in a larger storm. Our solution was to design and install two rain gardens, one planted and one filled with stone and redo the dry riverbed that had filled with sediment. We dug out the dry river bed more deeply and installed check dams so that the flow of water would slow and infiltrate, not just be conveyed to another area. We also planted several shrubs at the top of the dry riverbed to absorb some of the rain water.
Stone rain garden. The crew excavated old stone and dirt down to 24inches and removed it. Then they filled the hole with #2 stone to allow for the most drainage capacity. The river rock went on top to make it look nice! Water comes into this area from a downspout, the driveway and from the dry river bed and rain garden.
Dry riverbed before and after. The client wanted to keep the naturalized look of this dry river bed so we dug mostly down instead of wider. We installed several check dams (areas where we leave some of the soil soil and excavate behind it so the water flow is slowed and some of the water infiltrates into the ground. There is #2 stone under the river rock (because it’s cheaper).
Before rain garden
To start, our crew dug out the existing stone that was under the original asphalt. They also tore down the wooden fencing to make space for new plantings.
The full dry riverbed. Much of the existing rock was kept to keep the swale looking natural.
Columbia Rain garden
The finished rain garden was planted with:
Christmas fern- Polystichum acrostichoides
Turtlehead- Chelone glabra
Seersucker sedge- Carex platanoides
White wood aster- Aster divaricata
Interested in solving rainwater issues on your property?