Rain Gardens for the Pacific Northwest: Design and Build Your Own

by Zsofia Pasztor, Keri DeTore, Jill Nunemaker (Illustrator)

Overview

Rain pounds the Pacific Northwest, gushing through dirty downspouts, across chemically treated lawns, over oily streets and through public storm drains into bays, rivers, lakes, streams, and wetlands where nature struggles to survive among the pollutants. It’s a problem caused by population density and it’s one that you can help solve.

Rain Gardens for the Pacific Northwest shows you how to trap and filter dirty water safely in your yard—and how to do that with a beautiful addition to your home. Zsofia Pasztor, a Certified Professional Horticulturalist, shares what she’s learned over the years experimenting with rain gardens in the challenging clay and hardpan soils of the region. The book answers questions that Zsofia regularly encounters in her workshops, including:

• Can I build a rain garden myself?
• Can a rain garden be too big or too small?
• Can I create a low-maintenance rain garden?
• Will my rain garden attract mosquitos?
• How do you know if your infiltration system is in a “safe” location?
• If my rain garden isn’t working (e.g., not draining), how can I fix it without starting over?

With photos and illustrations throughout, lists of best plants, and a comprehensive resources section, this easy-to-use guide shows Northwest gardeners, homeowners, and DIY-ers how to plan, design, install, and maintain their own healthy, natural, and beautiful rain garden.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781680510416
Publisher:	Mountaineers Books, The
Publication date:	01/10/2017
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	1,037,696
Product dimensions:	6.90(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Zsofia Pasztor is an award-winning landscape designer and owner of Innovative Landscape Technologies which focuses on sustainable site management. She is a part-time instructor for the Edmonds Community College Horticulture Department, and a rain garden workshop instructor for Stewardship Partners. Learn more at www.innovativelandscapetechnologies.com.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Why Does The Northwest Need Rain Gardens? 9

Chapter 1 Hydrology: The Movement of Water Around Us 14

Chapter 2 Weather and Soil: A Little Meteorology and Geology for the Pacific Northwest 28

Chapter 3 Siting Your Rain Garden: Get Up Close and Personal With Your Yard 38

Chapter 4 Planning and Design: Get Your Pen and Paper Ready 66

Chapter 5 Time to Build: Let's Get Dirty! 108

Chapter 6 Maintenance and Troubleshooting: Caring for Your New Pride and Joy 140

Chapter 7 Smarter Gardening With Other Lid Techniques: All Roads Lead to Rome 158

Chapter 8 Case Studies: Rain Garden Successes 174

Last Words: Welcome to the Rain Garden Club 185

Top Plants for Pacific Northwest Rain Gardens 187

Rain Garden Planting Design Templates 233

Resources 243

Index 247

Acknowledgments 252

Editorial Reviews

"The book’s big accomplishment is grounding all the details of construction, plants and aesthetics within the bigger picture of environmental concerns. If you want to learn how water percolates through roots and soils, there’s a graphic for that. Yet from climate concerns to amphibians, the authors keep the bigger ecological picture in mind."

The Seattle Times - Easton Val

"..the perfect book for the designer who is ready to roll up their sleeves and get started on creating a rain garden." "..this book empowers readers to design and build rain gardens of their own. Paired with other books for “garden inspiration,” Rain Gardens is a useful and powerful tool for homeowners and landscape designers."

New York Botanical Garden - Esther Jackson