Maximize Water Use with Rain Garden

With temperatures on the rise and the drought monitor classifying the region under moderate drought, this may be the season to think about maximizing your property's water efficiency with a rain garden conversion. You're watching the Local News Network, brought to you by Kroegers, Ace Hardware, and Serious Texas Barbecue. I'm Connor Shreve. Landscape designer Ava Montane says a rain garden is sculpted to direct and maximize the effectiveness of water when it falls on your property.

Any water that does hit the site, especially if you're harvesting off a roof or a driveway, it just increases the amount that gets into the land exponentially, and it's really a worthwhile endeavor.

Her company, Columbine Landscapes, has worked on resourceful water solutions for about 25 years. Montane says the philosophy of a rain garden is to work with nature instead of against it. It also helps with garden management.

You're slowing the flow of water, so when there is a big storm that could make erosive cuts in the landscape, like especially if you have a slope, this could happen, and slowing it down prevents that kind of a erosion, erosive cutting, and that's better for your land.

Rain gardens are passive, meaning they're not built to capture and store water for later use. Their goal is to utilize the most water possible when it does rain.

This is what I would call a full rain harvesting system where we're taking water from the downspouts that come from the gutters that take all the water, that hits the roof, put it into the landscape. And so we have what we call basins, and these gravel sections are called spillways, which get the water to travel in between. This is a full-blown system that we install all the time.

She says DIY options can be easier. If you want to give it a try, think about creating depressions.

You always want to plant low and walk high. So what that means is you want your landscaped areas, your planting beds, whatever, where your plants are going to be growing, you want them just even at a slightly lower grade than your hardscapes, which are your paths, your patios, your driveways. Even an inch difference can make all the difference for where water goes and settles.

Implementing these rain garden philosophies can help hydrate the land, keep pathways from eroding, and in the winter, keep ice off your walkways. For more information about this and other stories, visit durangolocal.news. Thanks for watching this edition of The Local News Network. I'm Connor Shreve.