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BY DEBBIE KANEILLUSTRATION BY LENITA BOFINGER

DAVID CEDARIIOLi\I, D RIIAj\)'S TOWN ENGINEER, is passionate about rain gardens.

On a stormy day-"the best time to see how a rain garden works," he says­

Cedarholm enthusiastically entices a visitor into the elements to see a sixteen-foot­

by-ten-foot, stone-filled patch of ornamental grasses, irises and day lilies adjacent

to the Durham Public Works (DP\,v) building.

Despite a howling wind and torrential rain, water isn't visibly pooling in the

garden-which is how it's supposed to work, Cedarholm explains. "The water

percolates down through the garden, and the overAow goes into a catch basin

(in the parking lot)," he says. "People arc amazed at how it works."

With the right design,

Mother Nature can

help you reduce-

or even eliminate­

how much you

have to water your

landscape plantings.

38 NEW HAMPSHIRE HOME I MARCH/APRil 2009

FACING PAGE: Native plants-such as wild berga­

mot, blue flag, maidenhair fern, blue cardinal

flower, liatris, rudebekia and wild columbine­

flourish in rain gardens.

THIS PAGE: The New England Wild Flower Society's

rain garden in Framingham, Massachusetts,

features plants native to North America, such

as false goat's beard, cardinal flowers and

dwarf-crested irises.

Cedarholm started his garden by

digging an eight-inch-deep "bowL" He

created a berm around it to delineate

the area and keep water inside the gar­

den when it rained.

Cedarholm is among a growing

number of ecologically minded ew

Hampshire residents interested In

using the water running off their roofs

in their yards. Water conservation is

the primary goal behind rain garden-

ing, where water runoff from roofs,

yards and paved surfaces is absorbed in

the garden. The water is filtered slowly

through the garden's plantings and

into the soil, which cleans the water of

pollutants before it reaches local

streams, rivers and lakes via storm

drains.

According to the Rain Garden

etwork-an online forum about rain

gardening-these gardens can absorb

between 30 percent and 40 percent

more runoff than a conventional lawn,

slowing the rush of a rainstorm and

lessening its potentially polluting effect

on a community.

In addition to their practical appli­

cations, rain gardens add beauty and

value to commercial and residential

properties. "A rain garden makes your

site more sustainable," says Terrence

Parker, principal of Terra Firma

MARCH/APRIL 2009 I NEW HAMPSHIRE HOME 39

Landscape Architecture in Portsmouth sh

and a designer of rain gardens for both sci

commercial and residential use. "It's co

more cost-effective in the long term, gr

and the gardens are a visual amenity." "p

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vvvvvv.vvescottdoors.com

40 NEW HAMPSHIRE HOME I MARCH/APRIL 2009

WORKING WITH NATURE-AND

TOUGHER BUILDING STANDARDS

Facing tougher state and federal

regulations on potential pollution

(commercial construction projects in

ew Hampshire must treat stormwater

runoff from pavements and parking

lots), developers are seeing rain gardens

as an appealing water-management

solution.

When Phillips Exeter Academy

built three faculty houses last year in

Exeter, the homes were designed with

a rain garden in mind, says engineer

Jeff Clifford of Altus Engineering in

Portsmouth.

The runoff from the single-family

homes is collected in a boomerang-

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shaped rain garden adjacent to the

school's athletic fields. The garden­

containing mostly wild, ornamental

grasses-is designed to collect and

"pond" water up to six inches before

it's filtered through the landscape

and an underground drain carries the

water away.

"It's de igned for a one-inch water

depth," Clifford says. The garden is

between two feet and three feet deep,

and there's eighteen inches of soil­

layers of loam, compost and sand-that

filter the water. "It's a perfect location

because the soil is good and the layout

of the project naturally leads the water

away," he says.

However, rain gardens aren't limited

to larger building projects. "Homeowners

can build rain gardens on a small scale

with ornamental appeal," Parker says.

For example, Steve Lewis,.an Atkinson

land-use consultant and builder, has

built two residential communities that

a design / build landscape company

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MARCH/APRll2009 I NEW HAMPSHIRE HOME 41

incorporate rain-gardening techniques.

The Village at Braemoor Woods in

Salem features maintenance-free rain

gardens, which add to the develop­

ment's appeal. "I use indigenous plants,

like winterberry, in the landscaping,"

Lewis says. "The gardens are meant to

be a bio-cleaning filter, but they're also

very attractive."

BUILDING A RAIN GARDEN

Fortunately for beginning gardeners, a

rain garden doesn't have to be sophisti­

cated, but there are a few points to keep

in mind.

First, locate your rain garden near

the water runoff source. Cedarholm­

who built the Durham DPW rain

garden on Earth Day 2007 with his

family-located the garden near the

downspout of the building's gutter. The

most important time to treat stormwa­

ter runoff is during the first ten minutes

of a rainstorm. "That's when you get silt

42 NEW HAMPSHIRE HOME I MARCH/APRIL 2009

Future603-329-8113

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•

from fue roof and junk off the road in

the water," Cedarholm says.

Second, be sure to consider the soil

type. The area around the DPW's rain

garden has sandy soil that's permeable

and effective at filtering the rainwater.

Cedarholm also put in layers of loam

and compost to create additional filter­

ing properties.

Third, use plantings native to New

Hampshire climate and soils. Parker

suggests native grasses, ferns, rushes,

echinacea and black-eyed Susans as well

as common plants seen in meadows,

such as milkweed, aster, columbine,

cornAower and irises. "You're designing

your garden for a dry situation, so plants

have to be drought-tolerant," Parker

says. "Plants aren't sustainable if they're

designed for constantly wet situations.

They must be tolerant at both

extremes." Also, the local plants and

MARCH/APRIL 2009 I NEW HAMPSHIRE HOME 43

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Attached to a downspout, a rain barrel

collects and filters water, storing it for

later use in the garden and yard.

THE MANY MISSIONS

OF RAIN GARDENS

Cedarholm's rain garden has proved

successful on several levels. "We use

[the garden] as a public outreach to dis­

cuss the town's stormwater and water

systems," Cedarholm says. "I want

everyone to know that this is doable

and good for the environment." He's

already planning a rain garden for down­

town Durham as well as another behind

the public works building.

For Parker, rain gardening is a sim­

ple way to help the environment and

express individual creativity. "Everyone

can do it at their own level," he says.

For gardeners and conservationists

alike, that means a beautiful garden

that puts water in its place. =

Aowers can become butterAy and bird

habitats.

The Durham Carden Club gave

Cedarholm the DPW garden's plant­

ings for free. Instead of bark mulch,

which absorbs water, Cedarholm and

his children placed dinosaur egg-shaped

rocks found in a local quarry around the

plants. "The plants we selected can tol­

erate Aooding as well as droughts,"

Cedarholm says. "The day lilies and

irises Aourished."

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