the rain garden

First section in the yard was our rain garden.  One of our city requirements was to collect a portion of our impervious surface rain runoff in one of a couple ways.  We choose to create a rain garden in our front yard. The first step was to dig down about 18" to the native clay soil.  

Then we brought in 10 yards of special bio-retention soil to fill the hole.  I took a few days off of work to be able to focus on these next steps.

After moving the rocks into place, we spread a layer of mulch down.  It will take a few years for the plants to fill in.  Meanwhile, I wanted to cut down on weeds.  The idea was to put down the mulch first, then just move it aside when I go to plant.

Next up the river rock.  I wanted to create the look of a stream bed.

The roof water enters at the top of these photos and is absorbed into the soil.  It's designed to have 2-4" of standing water and in the event of a major storm. If the water rises higher, then it will drain into the white pipe at the bottom of the picture which then drains into the street...which then drains into the city storm water.

 

Always love a garden after a good soak.  The plants I ended up selecting for this first round are: 

• acorus gramineus variegatus ogon (golden sweet flag)
• carex 'frosted curls'
• carex buchahanii 
• carex glauca (blue sedge)
• miscanthus sinensis 'dixieland'
• miscanthus sinensis 'purpurascens' (flame grass)
• juncus effusus

I also put some lavender in and sedums up in the dryer part.  After getting this in, I have stopped planting now till the fall.  We are about to go into our driest months and while I don't mind watering some, I also don't want to lose any plants. 

The below diagram is from the City of Seattle's drainage requirement that you can download here.

My main resource for creating this was the Rain Garden Handbook for Western Washingon that can be downloaded by clicking on the image below.  

garden inspiration

Like many people, I'm drawn to gardens for their calm serenity and their beauty.  I love texture and color and 1/3 of the photos I take are landscapes and gardens.  In preparation to designing our garden, I pulled together a bunch of my photos and created an inspiration book.  The individual photos can be found on my flickr site.

I had originally planned to hire someone to help me with the install of the garden.  I had a rough idea of what form the garden would take, but not the specific plants.  But then I realized that the garden is something that will be constantly evolving over our lifetime of living there, so it doesn't have to be perfectly done right away.  Therefore, I can do a little bit here and a little bit there and learn more about gardening as I go.  So I've been reading a lot of books and studying my photos more closely and making lists of the plants I want to include.

I've also been visiting our local Japanese Garden at different times of the year. We are lucky here in Seattle to have so much greenery all year round.  The Seattle Japanese Garden and the 230 acre Washington Park Arboretum are just a 5-10 minute walk from our property.

the yard

As Neil works on the house, I've been working on the yard.  In May we brought in 15 yards of compost to amend our clay soil. That's the lovely dark brown above, on top of the not so lovely clay.  First we tilled the clay soil. Next we brought in the compost and spread it from the conveyor on the truck.  Much easier to do that than spreading it by shovel and wheel barrel.  It cost us an extra $300 to have this company pick up the compost and spread it.  Totally worth it.

Then we tilled the soil again to mix it all together.  After all that, I brought in a couple loads of medium mulch to cover the soil. I will be doing my main planting in the fall, but want to stop the weeds from overtaking.  Every place I had not put the mulch down over the winter, I had to pull out 1'-2' grass/weeds.  So this time it will all be covered.

In preparation for our rain garden, we went rock shopping at Marenakos. I had done a trip back in February to scope it out.  It's an amazing place.  All kinds of rocks and hardscapes. 

 We rented a truck that could carry and dump the load.  This is about 6.5 tons of rock.  3.5 tons of 1 man boulders and 3 tons of river rock.

Next posts will be about the rain garden. 

happy new year!

I woke up this morning dreaming about our next house. We are not sure when we will actually build it, but I have started to design it. Some of my first thoughts are how I want the space to feel. Open, airy, spacious yet cozy, warm, light filled, efficient, comfortable, inspiring, beautiful. How to make a home feel like your favorite old sweater while at the same time the feeling when you put on that new outfit you look fabulous in. To wake up everyday smiling. I actually do have that in our place now, when I wake up with the sun and not the alarm.

So through the gate I go and I'm looking forward to sharing my process again...much in the beginning is drawing inspiration from the world around me.

greenwood ave cottages - ross chapin architects

This project was completed in our office just before I started working there 7 years ago. I actually visited it under construction because I was interested in housing communities and this was a unique project. I often look back on these pictures which were taken a few years ago, because it captures the cottages and their gardens at such a perfect time. About 3 years after completion. Before that the gardens are too freshly planted and haven't filled in....going back today they are just as beautiful, but much fuller.

I just can't seem to get gardening off my brain. I have realized that it is a never ending project. Not just the maintaining, but the adding and tweaking. I've had so much fun working on ours at the new house...I'm realizing that I need to put some time in at our Genesee house as well. These photos are a constant inspiration. The owners have really put so much passion into their individual gardens. Typically in our projects, the developer puts in all the plantings outside the 2' private yard fence. You can barely see the cedar fence depicting what is commons and what is private, as the plantings have grown. It's all about the transition from the public realm to the private.

groundcovers

I chose a variety of ground covers for different sun exposures and to provide a variety of texture around larger plants. Above is Phlox with Ogon Sedum in the background. These are located out front near the rockery. The Ogon Sedum is doing really well. It looks like it has doubled in 2 months.

The other ground cover that has doubled is the Mother of Thyme. Here it is next to the Nandina.
I'm thinking of getting more since it's doing so well in the direct sun. Here it is moving up the concrete stoop.

On the other side of the stoop I planted New Zealand Brass Buttons (Leptinella squalida) These are under the Nandina Firepower in front of the porch.


Along the path I wanted a strip of low planting before the grass to keep the grass out of the path. I alternated between Saxifraga “White Pixie” and Mother of Thyme (Thymus serpyllum). Both have done really well and the thyme will eventually have lavender flowers.


Under the Red Twig Dogwood, I planted Beach Strawberry (Fragaria chiloensis) which also does well in full sun. I had raised the bed to give the area more of an accent. The trick with this plant will be to keep the off spurts on the mound and not out into the grass.


To cover a larger area, I chose Perwinkle (Vinca minor 'Bowles').

back yard

I've been so focused on the front, I have not shown pics of what we have done in the back. Neil put in a compacted gravel parking area for 2 cars. It feels pretty solid, but since it's pervious, the water drains right through.
Our stepping stones were picked out at Pavingstone Supply over in Ballard. They have a large selection and they also supply pavers like we used on the patio, but ours came directly from Mutual Materials.
The back stoop has 2 fish tiles like the front stoop leaves from Seattle Tile.

the front yard

Sometimes it's good to look back and see how far one has come. This blog is good for that. The yard has been my biggest challenge. I have never been a gardener. Never lived in a place that had a yard like this. It's been overwhelming at times, but we keep plugging away at it a little here and there.

The grass is starting to fill in. We have been lucky with the weather and haven't had to water so much. We put down a seed from Swanson's Nursery called Play & Fun. It's good for high traffic and play areas. It does well in moderate shade to full sun and is drought resistant. It's a blend of 40& Elf Perennial Ryegrass, 20% Creeping Red Fescue, 15% Azcella Annual Ryegrass, 15% Longfellow Chewings Fescue, 10% Solera Tall Fescue.

I've been noticing some white spots on my pansies. Does anyone know what causes these? ahhh...My mom emailed me that it could be wind...which makes sense because they are more exposed up here.