The Rain Garden’s Growing!

This post is part of a series. If you want catch the whole thing, check out:

• Creating a Rain Garden Part 1 for the planning stage,
• Part 2 for the purchasing stage,
• Part 3 for the planting stage, 
• What’s a Rain Garden for some basic info on what a rain garden is and how it works, 
• Then Came the Rain for the great flood of June 2020 and the mulch incident, and
• The Cost of a Rain Garden for, well, the cost.

I planted 20 perennials in early June.

It’s been 2 whole months, and some plants have grown just a little . . . 

Others have just taken off!

We’ve had some heavy rains, so I haven’t watered in at least a month, and I’m no longer worried about flooding. 

I have to admit, though, I don’t love the look of the garden as much as I had hoped. I think the red of the cardinal flower is amazing. In certain light, it just glows. The little yellow coreopsis are super-sweet. And I love the orange of the butterfly weed.

Red, yellow and orange were colors I used for my wedding decor, so you know I love how they look together. 

Now, I even like the pink milkweed. The individual flowers are really cute. They have these small white and brownish dots you can only see if you look really closely. 

I also had a few visitors courtesy of the milkweed.

The problem? I don’t loooove the milkweed in the garden. I think it clashes with the red of the cardinal flowers, and it just kind of took over. It’s like I spilled Pepto Bismol over the tops of the plants and it just globbed onto everything. 

What’s a gardener to do? I’ll be merciful and let the milkweed do its thing this summer. But next year, I’m going to move some of the plants to another area of my yard. I really love having a place where a ton of bees and monarch butterflies gather, so I’ll keep some in the garden as well.

Although I wrote so much about the environmental benefits of a rain garden, I have to admit I want it to be pleasing to my eye as well. 

Peace Out (and In),

Julie

PS. Do you have a favorite flower native to your area? Comment below with what native flower you love.