Let me introduce you to our lovely rain garden.. which is built in before our pond and its overflow will in fact go into the pond..
Now the pond was dug down and leveled with rounded swaying sides to make it look more natural. Nature was helpful, it rained and showed us where we needed to level more and that it collected the rain nicely and VERY important, it showed that it drained that water in 12 to 14 hours.
At that point we put back a mix of top soil/compost mix.. The whole area was dug down ahead of time. We went with a total of 8 inches deep in the lowest level 1, 6 inches deep at level 2 and 4 inches in Level 3. There were a few spots that I brought that up to a 2 inch dip.. so level 3 has some area’s 4 inches and other 2 inches..
It was still a bit wet when we started work on building the layers.. and yes we put in the overflow first because we wanted that matched to level 2 for the overflow.
The different layers have different plant choices based on how much they can handle wetter feet vs drying out at times.. Then we needed to mulch it down to help present seeds from blowing in an starting.
Now I know that we need another drift wood to add in there and that the plants are little yet.. but trust me.. they will grow, they will fill things in and most of them need to be split every three years so they will pay for themselve in time 🙂
Now we needed to build a dry creek bed overflow into the pond.. The sides of the made stable with the very large rocks and then the river rock fills the bottom.. there is a nice flat on each side that allows you to use them to step on and cross of the wee creek (haha) if you need to do so.
We still need to build the dry creek bed that leads into the rain garden.. but the rain garden itself is finished! I can’t wait include a photo a month as it grows and fills in and hopefully show you it in action 🙂
Just another Day on the Farm 
Looks great and a great way to soak up the rain water. What kind of plants have you planted there? (I guess plants that like a lot of water!)
Great question and worth its own post, the plants need to be a strange mix that can stand both wet feet and at times drought.. because the rain garden is designed to drain very well and therefor no rain.. dry rain garden.. I will do a plant post on what I choose and what other things could have been done.
A very timely post. Any suggestions on which plants can take wet feet? Preferably in the edible categories annuals and perennials. Love everything you write but I usually dont say much.
Cheers, David
Hi David,
Great questions and I will work in into its own post as a Rain garden Follow up.. I will cover the typical basic plants, the ones I choose and why and the sadly very limited edible that can be used in certain layers.. What we can do more so, is really do pollinator plants that then support the edibles on increasing our yields.
A very timely post for a very wet spring. Any suggestions on which plants can take wet feet? Preferably in the edible categories annuals and perennials. I have a damp space next to the pond and it could use some help. Love everything you write but I usually dont say much.
Cheers, David