Rain Gardens (Pervious vs Impervious Surfaces)

Personally, I love gardening.  I dug up the small patches of grass around our townhome and put in rock gardens, much to all our neighbors initial speculation.  Even though they are still a good amount of work while they continue to establish themselves, I will take some weeding and pruning over cutting the grass and worrying about it drying out, any day!

Anywho, whether you are as enthusiastic about gardening as I am or not, rain gardens don't have to be difficult at all.

There are a couple things that need to be explained first.  There are two types of basic surface, pervious, and impervious.  As you may or may not already know, pervious means that things, mostly water, can pass through it (permeable is another word, just not used in this case).  Impervious means that water cannot pass through it.  Much of our "civilized" world today is covered in impervious surface.  For instance, where I live, Hampton Roads, it is said to be on average, 60% impervious surface.  That means, of all the land in this area, well over half is paved or somehow covered with surface (buildings) that will not absorb water, and instead contribute to runoff, often directly into stormwater systems and into the Chesapeake Bay.  When you add pervious surface into the equation, rather than immediately stream from building to parking lot to stormwater drains to the Bay, some of this water will instead be absorbed into the ground, where it can be filtered prior to entering the Bay (or whatever your watershed is).  Add plants to the equation and BAM!  Now, not only is the water absorbing, but you have increased its porosity, with root systems, and the ability of the soil to absorb goes up, as the plants suck up the water.  Now, this cleaner water can also be transpired by the plants, back into the atmosphere.

Essentially, all you need to do in order to establish a functional rain garden is to watch and see where rainwater runs off from your home (or workplace!).  At our house, most is from the gutters, and because our house is on an incline from the road, it runs from the gutters, down to the road.  Ideally, we would take the driveway and make it a less pervious surface.  However, this can be a bit more expensive.  I have seen lovely things done though, were you can mix in pavers with bits of grass-like plants (anything sturdy and short, ideally something that doesn't need to be cut), or concrete with spaces.

 

There are also several pervious asphalt options, some of which can get pricey.  There are few options listed here.

Back to gardens though.  It is always best to use native plants, in any gardening.  If you are unsure what is native, do a google search for your area, or talk to local garden clubs.  They may have a list available.  These plants are best, because they will likely require the least amount of care, once they are established.  Because they are used to the local conditions (rain, heat, cold, etc), they should require minimal watering from you and still look good (or at least stay alive).  These are my kind of plants :)

Gutter downspouts are a great place for this, if there is somewhere to put in a little garden.  Often times, you may see them in drainage ditches.  Our city has recently started planting them, on a slope, in the middle of the road.  Here are some lovely examples of raingardens:

 This one has 2 downspouts! :)

Alright, after all this talk about gardening, I think I'm headed out to do some early morning weeding now!  Happy gardening!

Worm Composter

I probably wouldn't normally post about something so similar to the last one, but this really is a lot of fun...

I got a worm composter awhile back.  This was actually really easy to keep inside, if the the thought of worms living (contained) inside doesn't totally gross you out :)  And, if you have kids, they are bound to think this is much cooler than normal composting.

I bought mine from hayneedle.com, but I think this one is pretty similar:




Essentially, you receive this contraption along with some directions, a coir brick, and some shredded paper.  You have to procure your worms separately, and they cannot be earthworms, bloodworms, etc. They MUST BE "red wriggler worms."  (The 1800 count from Sun Joe is a relatively good deal.)  I've also heard that these can be bought from some bait shops, but I haven't seen them at one yet.

Once you receive all your worms and composter, you can get started!  You will need some kind of paper or newspaper (most mail advertisements work great) to moisten and place it on top of your "compost" material, which can include: paper, magazines, cardboard, dryer lint, tissues, egg carton, vegetables, fruit, starches, coffee, egg shell, tea bags, flowers, leaves.

As the worms eat their way through the compost, they will make their way upward, as you slowly add on additional levels.  The worms will reproduce quickly and break down all your waste!  Each tray typically ends up with a good amt of compost material for your garden, and you also get "worm tea" in the bottom (hence the spigot), which is great for your plants, when diluted with water.

If you try this out, I hope you have as much fun with it as we did!  My husband has been begging me to set it back up since we moved :-D

Crazy About Compost!

Compost can be done anywhere!  While it is, of course, easiest to do outdoors, where you have plenty of space to let items rot away, there are even ways for apartment or condo dwellers to bring it inside in a way that is not completely disgusting- indoor compost article.  Compost is important in reducing your household's waste and it is also great for use in your yard or garden.  Combined with recycling, it should help to greatly reduce what you are throwing away.

Ideal composting is basically a nitrification cycle taking place inside your "bin."  This can be difficult to achieve, depending on what you're working with, but chances are, no matter what, your stuff is going to break down over time regardless over whether you have put together the optimal blend of carbon and nitrogen or not.  Basically, you want a mix of your greens and your browns, preferably with a higher percentage of browns.  Your browns include items such as: leaves, newspaper, corn stalks, peat, pine, sawdust.  Greens are food waste, garden waste, coffee grinds, weeds (as long as they haven't gone to seed).  Do not ever put any type of animal product or animal waste, citrus, chemicals (herbicides, pesticides).

This is the composter I currently have, which makes it easier to turn the compost- 

I have also used this one, from Lowes:  

I find that the first one heats things up a little more quickly and I prefer to not have to take a pitchfork or rake to it to turn it, but to each his own.  These can be super easy to make, as well, if you have access to  tools for cutting wood.  There are tutorials all over youtube on different ways to make these.

As to collecting the compost itself, I used to use just a bowl on the counter, but as that can get a little gross to look at some times, we have recently introduced a compost crock.  This one that I have is from Plow and Hearth.

I think this one is very pretty, but there are a lot of options!  Many have filters in the top to keep them from smelling as badly, and also compostable bags to line the inside with, so that they are easy to keep clean.

Honestly, I haven't used mine much in the garden, but it is amazing every week when I go out with my load to dump on top, that there is amazingly little in there!  (Maybe I have a neighbor with a very fertile yard?)  Good luck with yours!  Get composting!

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Scoop the Poop

We all know how disgusting it is to find a pile of poo that isn't ours (or our pet's) on the grass.  It is SO important as responsible pet owners to make sure that we take care of this one thing.  I cannot count how many times I have heard from people, "But it's fertilizer!"  It is not.  Maybe, maybe if your dog sticks to a strictly vegetarian diet (not very healthy for your dog) like the hoofstock that produces that manure that people pay for, then you can say this.  Otherwise, it's simply not true.  In most cases, dog feces has the nutritional value for your garden or yard of human feces, and you certainly don't see anyone selling that (legally).

In addition to its unpleasantness, there is the additional fact that dog feces can spread disease (worms, parvo. salmonella, e.coli and other lovely things), flies thrive on laying eggs in poo, and some dogs like to eat it- hope they don't lick you in the face next.  It's just gross.  Add in the fact that animal feces is actually considered a non-point source of pollution for watersheds.  All that bacteria is washing from yards and into the storm drains, which send the water... directly to where many of us like to swim and enjoy other recreation.

I love our local Lynnhaven River Now and Virginia Beach SPCA's "Scoop the Poop" stickers that go onto garbage cans in the city to promote the idea.  VBSPCA has a site here: http://vbspca.com/modules/vbspcainfo/item.php?itemid=74

Please help scoop your pets, and encourage others to do the same, even in their own yards!