Imagine your garden flooding every time it rains heavily.
This is the reality for one Reddit user who took to the platform to share photos of their flooded garden after they had recently installed a dry creek. "Thought we solved our drainage problem," they said.
The photos show the installation of their dry creek and the house surrounded by water after runoff reached their garden from their neighbor's property, with the user asking, "Anyone have any other suggestions?"
The post garnered a lot of attention. One user commented, "It really is unfortunate," while others urged the original poster to consider installing a rain garden and planting native plants in their dry creek.
A rain garden is a depressed area in the landscape that is designed to absorb the rainwater instead of letting it run off. These gardens mimic the way the natural environment works and often use native plants to help soak up the excess water. They are also a great way to provide suitable habitat for pollinators, and they save money since they require less fertilizer, pesticides, and water.
Rewilding your yard or even a small area of your garden using native plants is a great way to significantly reduce water runoff, because these plants are adapted to local weather conditions and soils.
Additionally, the roots of native plants tend to extend deeply into the ground, which helps loosen the soil to enable water to work its way into the ground. The water then filters through the soil down into the local aquifers, refilling the local water supply with clean rainwater.
This is a win-win situation, as it provides you with a beautiful garden while protecting against flooding that occurs from heavy rainfall, saving you time and money. Rain gardens also reduce the amount of pollutants that leave your garden and enter local streams, lakes, and ponds.
"A rain garden would really help you," one user commented.
"I bet you could considerably reduce the amount of water actually ending up in the creek with a good size rain garden," said another user.
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