Go With the Flow This is the ideal time of year to do a drainage makeover. If you would like to go with the flow in a green way in your yard, consider these ideas... by Tom Watson A hit song from the 70s asked, "Who'll stop the rain?" The answer, of course, is nobody, especially in Seattle. But perhaps because we do have such regular precipitation here, we've made great strides in the art and science of drainage.

You may not be concerned about rain right now, during this (usually) dry time of the year. And people generally don't think about the way rainwater drains unless it's a problem – if you have water coming into your basement after a heavy rain, for example. An even more serious drainage problem, from an environmental standpoint, occurs when runoff flows down your asphalt and concrete driveways and sidewalks, straining sewer systems and carrying pollutants into local waterways.

This is the ideal time of year to do a drainage makeover. If you would like to go with the flow in a green way in your yard, consider these ideas:

- Put rain in its place. The rain garden is such a perfect concept for the Northwest that it's surprising it has only been a mainstream environmental strategy for a few years.

A rain garden is basically just a scooped-out area in your yard planted with deep-rooted native plants and grasses. It should be placed where it will receive runoff, from your roof for instance, that otherwise would end up in the storm sewer or sanitary sewer systems. The beauty of a rain garden is that in the summer when it's fairly dry, it turns into a landscape garden that attracts birds and butterflies.

Last fall I put in a rain garden in our small backyard. Over a couple weekends I took out the sod, dug down about a foot, and added a layer of compost from our backyard compost bin. I also formed a berm of soil all the way around it, so the garden could hold a fair amount of water from a heavy rain. Buried plastic (not vinyl) pipes bring water from two of our roof downspouts to the garden. Just in the past few weeks I have finally gotten most of it planted, and it looks great. One of my new native plants in the rain garden is already blooming – a beautiful, bright-yellow monkey flower. We didn't have enough rain last winter to really push it to the limit, but we love our rain garden so far. No water in our basement over the winter either!

A terrific resource for me was the "Rain Garden Handbook for Western Washington Homeowners" (www.pierce.wsu.edu/Water_Quality/LID) from the Washington State University Pierce County Extension. It includes detailed plant lists for various conditions.

- Holey moly. Another simple concept with the fancy name of "permeable pavement" really just means paved areas with holes for water to seep into the ground, instead of running into the storm sewer. Sometimes the holes are actual gaps filled with soil or vegetation, or they may be tiny holes in concrete or asphalt allowing water to easily percolate through it.

A number of local commercial projects have embraced permeable pavement, and today it's also well within the reach of the average homeowner. Search online or inquire at a building materials dealer to find a system that works for you.

- Big gulp. Go beyond just eco-friendly drainage and capture the rain for watering your plants or lawn. Rain barrels are great, but to really make a difference consider a cistern ( http://your.kingcounty.gov/dnrp/library/archive-documents/wlr/pi/pdf/cistern-water-saving.pdf), which is often a large concrete storage tank.

- Don't yank this chain. For an arty touch to your green drainage efforts, how about a rain chain? Taking the place of a gutter, these allow water to flow down metal cups or links ( www.harvesth2o.com/rainchain.shtml) into your rain garden, cistern or rain barrel. Now you're really going with the flow!


Note: Tom adapted and updated this article from a column he wrote recently for the Woodland Park Zoo's member magazine.


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