Rain Gardens for Homeowners

Author: Thomas G. Franti, Ph.D., P.E., University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Homeowners can reduce water runoff from their yards by using a functional and aesthetic design practice called a rain garden. A rain garden is a small area in a residential yard or neighborhood planted to flowers and ornamental grasses designed to temporarily hold and soak in rain water that comes from a house roof, driveway or other open area. A rain garden is not a pond or wetland. It is dry most of the time and holds water after a rain. Water collected in the rain garden slowly infiltrates into the soil to support plant growth. In a properly sited and designed rain garden standing water disappears in less than 48 hours.

Rain gardens are designed to be an aesthetically pleasing feature of your landscape. The photos provided here show rain gardens in many phases of construction and development. Because rain gardens use plants as their major aesthetic feature it may take a few growing seasons until plants reach maturity and develop the beauty you are tying to create.

>> PowerPoint slides of a basic Rain Garden installation

UNL Resources

• YouTube video clips on rain gardens from Backyard Farmer

Series of 3 UNL Extension NebGuides on designing and installing rain gardens to provide a functional and aesthetic means for reducing polluted water runoff in urban areas:

• Stormwater Management: Rain Garden Design for Homeowners (PDF version 901KB)
• Stormwater Management: Installing Rain Gardens in Your Yard (PDF version 673KB)
• Stormwater Management: Plant Selection for Rain Gardens in Nebraska (PDF version 624KB)

PDF format requires Acrobat Reader free.

Other rain garden resources

Rain garden site for City of Lincoln, Nebraska

Kansas City 10,000 Rain Gardens project

University of Wisconsin Extension publication
Rain Gardens: A how-to manual for homeowners (PDF 2.98MB, 32 pgaes)