How to Build a Rain Garden | This Old House
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- Опубліковано 28 лип 2024
- This Old House landscape contractor Roger Cook shows how to use rainwater to sustain a lush garden. (See below for a shopping list and tools.)
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Shopping List for Building a Rain Garden:
- line-marking spray paint
- 4-inch plastic 90 elbow
- 4-inch plastic drainpipe
- plants
- starter fertilizer
- gravel
- bark mulch
Tools for Building a Rain Garden:
- garden hose
- mini-excavator
- shovels
- miter saw
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How to Build a Rain Garden | This Old House
/ thisoldhouse - Навчання та стиль
I live in Portland. The city sends that guy Joel out for free or provide advice for homeowners to manage their storm water. He came to my house and gave some great tips!
Drinking a shot every time he says Gaad'n. :p
Aka How to die in six minutes and thirty seconds
Gahdin
Drunk yet?
Liver Check!
He from Boston lol
I have a rain storm garden where the water flows naturally, in to a dry creek bed. If more homeowners would do this nature will return to the landscape. Remember nature is not perfect, too many folks want a perfect yard.
1. A rain storm garden of pipes leading into a manufactured dry creek bed is not natural. If a suburban landscape was to morph into "Nature," it would become an overgrown wilderness that would probably cover a house and demolish it over time.
2. "Nature" IS perfect. It's just that most don't really want it, they want it to be only a little bit wild, contained to their specifications in a yard or patio, or small "woodsy" area.
@@jcl5345 The dry creek is natural where the rain flows into the basin with no help, of any man made irrigation pipes. Nature is different, like the many plants that grow wild. It needs to be maintenance weekly or monthly in some cases yearly.
@@outdoorsbeyondnature1980 Sorry, I think that I'm speaking to someone who is not from the US, so I probably misunderstood him.
@@jcl5345 You most be talking pig Latin, sorry I speak american english.
in australia they would call this a soak well....I captain planet ...approve of this project!!
Love it that people can do basically anything on their own property! The diversity of ideas and sustainability of ones own land is so wonderful! I’m sure she is enjoying the beauty and meditative area now.
Kim Turner more like the beauty of mosquitos and yard maintenance in that swamp
@@RobertJones-ik2vy You're so wrong, lol. We don't get mosquitos in summer in the Pacific NW, because it is bone dry during summer. During winter, it is cold and rainy, and the cold repels or kills off all the mosquitos. So no issues there. The only mosquito problems here are found in the mountains after snow-melt at elevations above 3,000 feet.
NatureShy this is one of the few places it wouldn’t attract mosquitos. That’s still a ton of yard maintenance when the weeds start growing out of it. Also it looks like crap
@@RobertJones-ik2vy What yard doesn't require maintenance? (it does look like crap though lol)
@@RobertJones-ik2vy Nope , lawns look like crap and require more of everything than anything , see a lawn = puke
love when he says "rain godden"
Wow, if well maintained, this is a beautiful garden.
I see what you did and it will work very well as the soak away on that scale will be more than sufficient! Great job
Good job! Clear, detailed and concise.
this is really cool...over 40" avg in Houston...new construction must put in "storm water detention ponds"...but they don't landscape them...this is cool
Great idea. Next time make sure it's at least 10' from the foundation of the house though.
N. Donnelly why?
BC Window Cleaning So the water doesn’t run back to the foundation.
The garden doesn't even look 10 feet wide. You'd be dumping water in the street lol.
That was pretty good Roger - job well done!
Haven’t seen this old house since I was a kid. Theres a Mainah hostin now bub.
Juniper that close to the house! Don’t forget to plan for FireWise plants too.
That was awesome
Rain gardens are great. The only criticism I have is that TOH has been overusing heavy machinery in landscaping projects recently. You can use your back to dig a rain garden, pull out a bush, or build a fence.
use the heavy machinery if you can. look at the abuse on roger's body in the more recent videos. that ego will cost you a decade or two in terms of quality of life.
I bet they need to get these projects done in one day for TV production budget reasons.
@@jpperry2117 🎯💯
@@rwgeach BS. Physical activity is something more people need more of, not less. The average person is not going to shorten their lifespan by getting off the couch and working a bit.
Western MA is doing a construction project to separate the sewer and rainwater lines
That aucuba is beautiful
Roger is the bob ross of gardening
Brought to you by the lettah “Ah”.
In NJ rainwater is usually piped into storm drains, although most newer commercial properties have some kind of holding pond. It would be unthinkable to pipe rainwater into the sewer.
I was expecting a few more plants.
Need room to spread
@@ReticulatingSplines_
Not THAT much.
im1greatman aye
I was expecting it to be prettier
They vote democrat, so they are all vegetables.
That man just build a garden in half a day. With the help of a 20 tone machine
Oh. A crane. That seems like a reasonable DIY project...
Wish I could see how it looks today.
Probably overflowing with weeds. There's nothing to stop them from growing between the gravel.
Me too! I live nearby, I think I know what street its on. May do some dog walks in that direction to try to figure out which house it is. (edit: I found it on the map but looks like those bushes along the fence are so big now I may not be able to see what it looks like).
@@joeahand we must know!! Go in thru the bushes !!
@@jgood005 Yes because as we all know , weeds easily grow through gravel and stones but a trashy lawn or piece of sod is COMPLETELY impenetrable to weeds LMFDO
You're in my town! I didn't see the This Old House truck :-(
Evan Harriman I did , I saw Tom Silva drinking a beer with Nick in the truck , they was on lunch
Ya know, I just sent my mini excavator out to be cleaned...
Maxid1 Why didn't you wait till spring? I hope you build a berm with the displaced soil when the excavator is ready.
earthsskin
I was joking.
Now it's clear!
So you didn't clean it? That can affect the usable life, especially if there's mud in the tracks over a long period of time
My fuckload of rocks isn't done polishing in my giant polisher.
I think it should've been deeper for how much it rains in Portland and there should be an overflow out to the street. But this is what cities need to do to replenish the underground aquifers we have depleted.
6:03 did that man just say YEETING down!!!
The only problem with doing this in my area is that I have clay soil so a rain garden is not really practical. I would like to be able to divert the sump pump water into a water storage system that I can in turn to use to water my garden during the dry times. Here in Maryland we went almost a month without rain water, then we had almost 2 weeks of on and off heavy rainfall.
You can get a rain catchment and put your gutter pipe into that. Check out off grid with Doug and Stacy. They catch the rain water for much more than watering the yard. They also drink & cook with it. Filtered of course.
You can do a rain garden in clay , easily , just less deep and bigger area
I would have saved some of that topsoil and put it in a raised bed. Also, used a metal or ceramic pipe and put the garden just a bit farther from the house. I also think they could have used some more plants in the garden. It seems a bit empty. Looks nice, tho!
Would the house foundation or the condition of your basement be important since you are dumping all that water back into the soil feet from the house?
That's a good question! It's generally recommended to have a rain garden at least 10 feet from your house to protect the foundation, if not more.
Just wait till the lawnmower fires some rocks into the living room going down that narrow strip.
Likely they will just add plants , the goal is to reduce trashy short grass not obsess over it
Most towns in Indiana. The homes are usually have downspouts that just run into the yard our street.
4:58 big chungus
Nowhere is safe from the influence of chungus
Brought to you by the letter "R"
More like the letter "ahhhhh"
Can't lie it's a nice Gaaadn
I was looking for a spot to park in Chicago. Security tells me they probably got spots in Arruh.
Try again those policy were put in place by liberals in charge....so
@@zack9912000 LOLWUT
the watta goes to the Gaaaarrrrdddeeeennnn love ya roger learns lots from you guys very helpful
I need a rain gawden too p
Dude I love the accent.
Are gutters hard to install?
There's a lot of people in the comments saying this is a poorly designed rain garden. Does anybody have any advice on where to go to learn how to build a rain garden the right way?
youtube is mostly for criticizing, not helping.
Check out the site for the "Clemson (university) Extension Virtual Rain Garden". They have a series of short videos that are very informative. Also the "Old Farmer's Almanac" website has an article called "Rain Gardens: Two Designs and Plant List". It gives two detailed examples with specific plants, how many of each, where to put them, which zones they are suitable for, etc. Most are good for zones 3 or 4 up to 8 or 9. One example garden list is given for sun and one for partial shade. Fyi I added up the cost of one of them, getting all plants from nurseries and it was about $500 - that was just for the plants. I plan to make one this summer, purchasing only the larger plants (like blueberry or cranberry bushes, small trees, etc) and starting the flowers & other small plants from seed. Hope those sources are helpful for you, they were for me.
@@sibelb4152 Thanks! They are helpful for me. I'm planning a rain garden for Seattle!
@@kimmcdonagh6756
Check out your University extension services. Also any watershed steward organization in your area will have a step by step manual.
I belonged to the watershed stewards in Vancouver WA. We put one out
Listening to moe-rons in the comments blowing their talk horns seems to be your biggest problem
"we can create a rain godden". i watch these for the accent...who's with me? 👍
braf zachland - There is a video where he says "put the tarp on top." Best moment of my life...
lol
I Caaahn't Ahhgree Mooah.
Listen to him say Heather. So cute.
First and great video
what is that spotted green plant next to the down spout? it looks like a Croton.
Who's Idea was use the same pipe for storm water and Sewage on one of the rainiest city in America
Right into the Sew-ah
are bald cypresses good for rain gardens?
Never heard of a Rain Garden before. Mind you I am English and it never rains here
Jeremy Merrifield ii
Portland often receives around 90 cm of rain within a few months in the winter. Then it's dry the rest the year. Presents some unique opportunities.
Ah, now i think i get it, first i wondered why they did not use any sort of foil to keep the water from seeping to close to the house, but when i think about it it must more be ment like a drainage system and not a pond.
They hauled the soil away? If they didn't haul it away, and just piled it to make a fold, I wonder if it would have drained poorly enough to hold water and grow Sphagnum moss.
Sphagnum grows on elevated rocks and sidewalks here in western Oregon. You don't need anything that holds water, the stuff literally makes up half of the average lawn.
@@Elemiriel I don't have it that easy in New Mexico. You can watch water evaporate here.
We need before and after...
For those professionals out there: was the lack of a downspout catch basin surprising here or do you think it was an oversight to not include one ? Thanks.
It's common not to have one in Oregon, they get backed up from debris (maple leaves the size of a dinner plate) landing on top.
The 3 amigos did a great job, got paid then bailed out for the day lol.
i love that accent it changes letters in words..GAHDEN SHAHKS BAHKS at HAHWKS...tranlated..garden sharks barks at hawks.
MakeIt Morzan Maine accent
Who was the knucklehead that came up with the idea of connecting the residential downspouts to the sewer system in the first place?
This is awsome!! But I got two quetions;
1) Why did you covered the rest of the area with gravel stone, instead of soil?
2) Did you use an engineered soil for the planting area in order to increase water absorption. If so, what is the soil composition.
stone because the crazy amounts of water won't disturb it as much as soil. they didn't use anything in the planting beds except starter fertilizer and mulch.
i think the homeowner is still wondering what a rain gawdan is
The first thing that came to mind when he pronounced gutter as _gada_ ..... Gadda-D'aqua-Vida. The water of life gutter.
If only I had the money to do this.
pretty cheap materials. job is maybe a few hundred
I thought this old house people knew what they were doing and I'd like to see an update and what the owner's think now.
Can you expand on this comment?
She's a Bottler Gardens and Preserves. Cv
She's probably moved by now and it's become somebody else's problem.
At least they know more than moe-rons like yourself
Yea so much maintenance she does on that postage stamp lawn. More weeds than grass.
when it rains its going to look more like a pond in her yard lol.
Polar Bear thats the point lol
if they designed it right, it should be absorbed into the ground fairly quickly.
The gravel helps it consume all water it eats up the water pretty quickly ...bear man
When it rains in the PNW, it doesn't rain very hard. That 37 inches is spread out over 9-10 months, and when it does rain, it drizzles. At least that's how it is in WA.
@@jmbootz I'm sitting here in Everett reading this while watching the torrential downpour that's going on 24 hours..
Witth thu rain wadaa
In Australia we have devoted storm water and devoted sewer water that is treated then released.......So yanks mix it all up and dump it in the river?
Every city is different. I never heard of that until watching this
A lot of older homes had this type of combined sewer system, before any type of storm water system was put in.
@@undrachevr Yep sure...good point. More than likely the same in older places here too
Mostly because for Americans not paying taxes is their religion and acting as if everything around them was their birthright is their mantra
That corner of the house looked better without a downspout.
I really dislike unplanned downspouts.
Wow this city actually helps the people in my old city when they find a gutter into the sewer they just come cut the cutter cap the pipe and walk away they do this for free if people complain or try to interfere they charge for the work which 2 or 3 guys an hout if work and the simple supplies is 200 charge
They should have kept their dirt! Never let anyone take your native soil away. Use it somewhere else on your property!
True. You can always buy non-native soil but what comes from the ground never comes back.
I love the bad acting so natural lol
Way too small for any type of major rain, would overflow pretty quickly and in a few years would be a swampy mess. For small drizzles this will just be a muddy mess attracting mosquitoes. No doubt, a new project to start up to fill this hole back up and restore the lawn the way it was.
Most western Oregon soil drains very well, as the earth is used to excessive water. The pond is not designed to fill up, but to allow the water to seep back into the earth naturally
@@Elemiriel good point please the plants they added are designed for wet areas and will suck up a lot of the water. I've planted native grasses that have roots going down 10-15 feet into the ground. They're great for wet areas!
Swampy and trashy with water overflowing into the streets = lawns
@@knyghtryder3599 BS, you don['t know what you are talking about.
@@dancooper6002 I do know lawns are trash
Is it because it was a rain garden that why the plants weren't taken out of the bowl?
Juniper! What good is that for butterflies, birds and bees? They gave no consideration to using important native plant species.
How much you want to bet that lady went into her house after those guys left and started crying?😭
Any amount of money that she didn't
@@knyghtryder3599 She definitely did, they came with a big shovel and lowered her property value 20k.
@@dancooper6002 I would pay 20 more k if they got rid of all the trashy lawn
@@knyghtryder3599 You don't have the money for it. people that have money want lawns because they are not hillbillies
@@dancooper6002 hahahahahaha still nothing makes me happier than ripping up some puke green trash lawn
I'm pretty sure they moved that downspout just for the pond.
Confiscating downspouts? How does this help anything? Don't the downspouts lead to the ground just like a regular rain?
Not at all. Under the earth is a water table, that's how wells work. If you just let water soak straight into the ground, it will fall down to the water table, and then make its way to the nearest river eventually.
Portland was running rainwater into the sewers, which was flooding the treatment plants. (which is what he's talking about at 0:34)
Back in the 60's and 70's engineers thought that we needed to control and divert all the rainwater, until recently we realized that... oh wait, the dirt just does that already. It's our streets and pavements that cause runoff problems
@@thefrub So, just another case of Seattle doing things backwards?
@@JonO387 if by Seattle you meant Portland sure , try this test repeat these words person woman man camera TV , there don't you feel like a genius ?
Why not just harvest the water?
It might dry out by the time summer comes around (which gets very dry in the PNW). Also, rain gardens have ecological benefits when planted with natives.
That doesn't look like it would work well for very long.... say, past the first big rain storm.
Seem to me, all you have is a large puddle saturating the ground under your foundation.
I'd love to see how it looks now, 3 years later... I bet they'd have preferred an efficient runoff set up rather than a collection set up.
What do you consider an efficient system?
I'm pretty sure they have it set to overflow away from the house so that's not a big deal, and the purpose is to provide a pre-determined spot for surface water to soak safely until it can seep down to the water table level below. it's basically the same system as the basement water guys who put gutters with holes in them into the base of exterior walls to prevent flooding, only this solution is outdoors.
They needed a WHOLE lot more plants. Plants consume water. A true rain garden has no rocks. Just lots n lots of water loving/consuming plants.......
Honestly, it depends more on the soil than the plants. Thirsty, deep rooted plants can help, but if you have a sandy or silty soil, you may not even need plants. In my area (Wisconsin) a "low spot" works well enough to function as a rain garden
So you mean you think it would look just as trashy as a cut lawn ? Doubt it
It looks like she just added more maintenance to her house with weeds coming through the rocks and mulch and mulching each year. They should have considered a dry well (another TOH video) and just kept the grass... she has to mow around the new garden anyway.
Thanks Porsche924Tim! If any other fans are interested, check out our video for How to Install a Dry Well: How to Install a Dry Well - This Old House
Newer houses in Portland are required to have a dry well instead of the roof run off going into the sewer, but dry wells easily overflow during heavy rains. I ended up building a "purge valve" so that backed up water going into my dry well can empty into a backyard water feature.
i think you guys need to send that water to us in california.. we make it evaporate real quick down here apparently
Yes because as we all know , weeds that can easily grow through rock , are COMPLETELY unable to grow through trashy cut short grass...... LMFDO
It is not a rain garden. It is only an indentation in the yard.
There wasn"t any calculation about how big the rain garden has to be relative to the roof surface, what was the soil drainage. There wasn't any outflow pipe either. There wasn't any biomix introduced into the rain garden, there wasn't any woody mulch on the bottom of the rain garden. The cobble stones only collect weeds there.
That was a ridiculously bed advertisment for rain garden.
he didn't say if the mulch would sink or float either
Zsolt Pasztor i agree....as a landscaper myself i immediately thought of a pond.....rubber liner a cheap sump pump instead of waterfall pump and a little elbow grease. 1 yrd of limestome. 1 yard of fieldstone and .5 yds of river rock....$800 in materials. $4400 installed.
@@kidringo1257 they aren't trying to keep water in it. It's intended for the rain water from the gutters to seep into the ground through the loose soil. It's not perfect but it looks better than having the down spouts dump into the yard.
@@kidringo1257 You mean as a landscaper not knowing what a rain garden is or what the purpose of the video was ...... Yeh thanks for the valued input LMFDO
Downspout Disconnection Program....Hmmmmmm.
So they will basically end up with a swamp in their garden?
Sure if you've never lived in the PNW
She is very Portland
Time to do a rain gaadden. Let's git stadded.
Someone give Roger a raincoat.
Does anyone else see the blue in the top left corner or is it just me
1:58 guy relocates downspout? Yeah no thanks! Cut the existing downspout higher on the Y-axis and use corrugated pipe to disperse water away from foundation, mulch bed on top to conceal black pipe. Retrofitting the gutter on a house that old will cause other issues with the EXISTING gutter system. Downspout enforcement guy should have conceded to the Bob Villa guy and what he would do. Sadly, most city departments for storm water management get online “certifications” yet never ask the guys digging the French drains and doing the actual work.
Never connect a downspout to corrugated. The grooves hold roof sediment and clog. Better to use smooth wall pipe.
Mowing that would be annoying, weed wack for 2hrs with your electric Wacker cause you're in portland lol
The point is to reduce trashy short grass lawn that looks like crap
Bad design. How do you clean the downspouts and pipe to the pond? Once they clog up they will have to dig up the pipes to unclog. They should have put some clean outs in.
They are smooth wall. How would it get clogged?
Rain garden, also known as mosquito heaven.
Lol, not at all. We don't get mosquitos in summer in the Pacific NW down in the valley, because it is bone dry during summer. During winter, it is cold and rainy, and the cold repels or kills off all the mosquitos. So no issues there.
Sure if you have no idea where the video is , have never been there and vou couldn't pass middle school bio
If the 10 months of rain was currently overflowing the sewage system, there is no way that little ditch will hold the water. That yard will be flooded.
Likely you live with strongly clay soils and no where near where the video was shot
Seems like a good endeavor if you like mosquitoes.
Says everyone who never lived in the PNW and likey failed middle school bio
@@knyghtryder3599 Says anyone who thinks they understand location and science, but likely never built one..
@@blipblip88 Mosquitos can reproduce in a tea cup or a soda can, but they can't in any large body of water ....... Reducing wetlands in no way discourages mosquitos , they thrive in disturbed environments with tiny amounts of water puddles , cut short grass lawns , kids play toys etc
37 inches of rain is a lot? It’s 50 where I live.
It's Ga"r"den. Noy goden
New England accent.
I'm posting this from school :) They don't know
#badass
Better get your education instead
Stay away from the devils cabbage and get back to class you hoodlum!
America you need some nicer plants
Shame Roger had to quit, he was always one the bros, despite his tremendous size and ability to pound the other guys through floors like a nail into basements with just his enormous fist.
never I thought I'd be leaving in Portland Oregon when I saw this episode
I love how no one asked any questions in this whole video to move along conversation. It's so cringe, everyone just talks and talks, lol.
Whoever wrote the script probably needs practice. : P
The downspout by the foundation is in the correct location as it is a corner, now the homeowner might have occasional flooding in that corner and ice damn build up in the winter.
jonathan greenawalt Yes that was ill informed.
İce build up ???? Cuz the house is in Michigan?? LMFDO What else did they forget ? Hurricane proofing LMFDO
which eco system did you destroy to get all those pebbles, could have just dug a big hole in the lawn
Likely a quarry ..........
Here is your invoice $12,000. Thank You
I don’t like too close the foundation