I laughed at my neighbor's rain garden installation until the flood came

I was skeptical when he dug up a third of his front yard for native plants and gravel, but after our street got 4 inches of rain in one night last September, his yard stayed dry while mine had standing water for two days. Has anyone else seen these small-scale green infrastructure projects actually work in a heavy storm?

2 comments

2 Comments

miller.rowan1mo agoMost Upvoted

right, but the thing nobody talks about is how much it changes groundwater recharge. my street used to just dump runoff straight into the storm drains, now a bunch of these gardens let it soak back down where it falls. it's like the whole neighborhood became a slow-release sponge instead of a firehose.

cole_baker1mo ago

Honestly, I felt like a real genius standing in my muddy yard while @miller.rowan's place looked like a botanical garden party. Took a rain garden and a four-inch storm to humble my landscaping opinions real quick.