Got rain?

This will go down in history as one of the wettest, coldest Junes on record. Time to take a look at harnessing all our liquid assets and turn your landscape into a celebration of rainfall.

Cool, wet weather is good for more than just slugs. Hosta plants are in heaven and weeds are especially easy to pull from wet soil. Plus, you can work outdoors without worrying about sunburn or heat stroke. Have you noticed how much younger gardeners look? Gardening in the rain is good for the complexion – and a great stress-buster. All the bending and stretching is rather like a yoga workout, but with a purpose and something to show for your time after a 30-minute workout.

Anything you do to harness the rain water, from directing downspouts into rain barrels to creating low areas in the garden to capture and store moisture, isn’t just good for your pocketbook, but good for the environment, as well. Adding compost to your soil also helps store rain until needed later by plant roots. Choosing permeable paving such as stepping stones or bricks set in sand or using gravel in pathways helps control and clean rainfall as well.

Why should we channel the rain? It’s all about cleaner water. In nature, falling rain would be filtered through soils and forest land and then slowly released into our streams and rivers as sparkling clean water. But the more paving and planting that we do of our paradise, the more oil, pesticides and fertilizers that get carried to our storm sewers and end up polluting our streams.

Another advantage of designing with the rain in mind is lower water bills.

Here’s how to begin building a rain garden (for detailed information on how to design a landscaped area that will collect and clean rain water you can go to www.pierce.wsu.edu/water_Quality/LID):

• Consider the location. Look for areas that drain to low spots in your landscape. If it squishes when you walk after a heavy rain, it’s probably a low spot. Don’t funnel rainwater any closer than 10 feet to a building foundation, over shallow utilities or on top of a septic drain field.

• Start digging. Remove 18 to 30 inches of soil and level the bottom of this basin, but don’t compact the soil. Mix compost into this basin but leave the area at least six inches below grade for ponding during heavy rain storms. Then add a gravel dry stream bed or direct underground pipe from your gutters to this new water-retention area.

• Add plants. You can use small trees, shrubs, herbs and grasses to create a moisture-loving garden in your rain garden. Cover the soil with two to three inches of mulch to keep down weeds and absorb more moisture.

• Keep it clean. Don’t use pesticides or fertilizers in this area, because you want all rainwater that is captured here to be clean and pollution-free. Remember that the more it rains the more water that gets returned to our streams and rivers – and the more water we can filter down through the soil, the cleaner it becomes.

Creating rain gardens to clean and filter our water is just one more way that gardeners can save the world. Life began in a garden, and water is the elixir of life. Dig in, compost, plant and celebrate the rain!

Marianne Binetti can be reached at mariannebinetti@comcast.net and P.O. Box 872, Enumclaw, WA 98022. For a personal reply by mail, enclose a stamped, self-addressed envelope.