Raingarden Care and Maintenance
Fig 1; Curbside Raingarden used to filter local runoff from the street and yard. Note the stone edger near curb inlet being used to for erosion control.
Once established raingarden maintenance is fairly low only needing some limited upkeep each year. To be sure your rain garden is functioning at its best as stormwater tool, stormwater needs to be able to flow into it. Keep an eye on the inlet at the yard or street for buildup. If leaves, grass clippings etc. are accumulating take the time to remove them. If the ground is starting to erode in the inlet area, installing some rock rip rap or a stepping stone or two may be needed to reinforce the area.
As well as being functional, raingardens should be aesthetically pleasing. Early on you will need to do some weeding until the plants get established and fill in the raingarden basin. How much will depend on whether you seeded, planted from plugs or pots, or in combination. It will also depend on how naturalized or manicured you want the raingarden to look. You may need to move, remove, or add plants to get the appeal that you’re looking for. If some plants are too tall, you can move them to the back, or remove them altogether. Some species that grow too aggressively like coneflower may need to be thinned-out.
Spring Checklist
- Add new plants, if needed
- Cut and remove dead stalks and seed heads remaining from the previous season
- Divide and move plants if they are crowding the garden
- Prune shrubs, if necessary, in March or early April
- Remove silt and debris from inlet
- Replenish mulch to 3 inches thick
Let KG Landscape Management Inc help you with your raingarden project. We have the technical expertise and the build experience to provide you with a great looking raingarden project that will benefit your yard for years to come.
Ready to Start on Your Next Project?
Call us at (763) 568-7251 or visit our quote page.
Recently, a client in St. Louis Park came to us hoping to reimagine their yard. Their goal was to install a new patio that would allow them to enjoy meals, get-togethers, and leisure time outdoors during Minnesota's precious warm months. That may have been the end result they were looking for, but after we comprehensively surveyed the property, it was clear that there was more work to do before we could identify an ideal position for the patio, let alone install it. As tempting as it can be to “skip to the good part,” a deliberate and thorough run-up to patio installation ascertained that this project would be a long-lasting addition to the home.
At KG Landscape, we love a good challenge, and the smaller lots of our inner-ring suburbs can certainly provide them. Limited space can lead to limited layout options and an imperative to maximize the usable space within that lot. However, from these limitations can spring creative solutions for outdoor living, and with this project, we and our client believe we found them. Here’s an example of how, with some out-of-the-box ideas and a bevy of beautiful plants, we were able to redesign an outdoor living space in a small St. Louis Park yard in order to maximize not just its beauty but its usability.
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