My friend Susan and I walk together several times a week. Usually we head south or west, but last week decided to head north. We came across a house that got our attention because it had clearly been remodeled, and it has a front yard rain garden. Not typical for the neighborhood. Or for our community in general.







Susan did some digging and found that the homeowners have a blog about the remodeling project. The blog does not have anything about the rain garden, and the original plans don't seem to show one. I have skipped around and read some of their story and can't decide if they're really cool or a little bit nuts. Maybe a little of both...

Happy Boolo:

https://www.happyboolo.com/our-story

We're trying to figure out how this passed inspection. The rain garden runs right up to the village sidewalk, and a passerby could easily step off the sidewalk and tumble into the rain garden. And that bridge is not that wide, and it doesn't have handrails. If we got a significant snow, the whole thing could be a giant disaster in the making, as you might not realize there's a pretty good-sized hole there.

OTOH, maybe they're not done with the rain garden yet...

I like the house a lot! Updated farm house but not black and white.

Rain garden, not so much.

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We're trying to figure out how this passed inspection. The rain garden runs right up to the village sidewalk, and a passerby could easily step off the sidewalk and tumble into the rain garden. And that bridge is not that wide, and it doesn't have handrails. If we got a significant snow, the whole thing could be a giant disaster in the making, as you might not realize there's a pretty good-sized hole there.

Oh wow! I would not have considered those details, but yikes!!

So, what is a rain garden? It's supposed to stay wet? Is that why it's sunken?

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Originally posted by ShiroKuro:

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We're trying to figure out how this passed inspection. The rain garden runs right up to the village sidewalk, and a passerby could easily step off the sidewalk and tumble into the rain garden. And that bridge is not that wide, and it doesn't have handrails. If we got a significant snow, the whole thing could be a giant disaster in the making, as you might not realize there's a pretty good-sized hole there.

Oh wow! I would not have considered those details, but yikes!!

So, what is a rain garden? It's supposed to stay wet? Is that why it's sunken?

It's supposed to survive on no more than rain water. That's why it's sunken but I don't see why it needs to be that deep. An few inches would trap plenty of rain. Not a fan of the step up at the front door either - the one with no handrails. Looks like it will be a death trap with a little ice on it.

I'm also not sure why it has to look so weedy. Chicagoland has any number of native plants that look good without any care. More careful arrangement of plants (drifts, meadow, height changes) and some rocks would could go a long way.

Maybe it's a work in progress.

The rifle hidden behind the wall.

https://www.happyboolo.com/fol...ifle-behind-the-wall

I wouldn't mind doing away with grass and having a pollinator garden, but the rain garden is giving me nightmares of a flooded basement or subsiding slab foundation.

If that deep hole is meant to stay, it would act like a stormwater retention pond. Those require permits, although I don't know how big they have to be to trigger permitting.

It's sure not going to run excess rainfall away from the foundation. I agree with all the cautionary comments from everyone. Nice idea poorly executed.

Like the house.

I agree with Steve regarding the choice of plant material in front. There were lots of asters there and we could see bees and some very tiny yellow butterflies checking out the purple flowers, but it did look like an overgrown weed patch.

They were going for LEED Platinum certification and I'm sure that involves rainwater harvesting. But what that means exactly, I have no clue. I don't see anything in the blog (which is a bit scattered) about burying tanks to capture rainwater.

At the very end of this page on their site, they show a concept drawing of the front yard, which is very different than what is there now.




Susan and I will have to head in the direction of 631 and hope we run into the owners some time so we can ask them some questions.

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Originally posted by wtg:
I agree with Steve regarding the choice of plant material in front. There were lots of asters there and we could see bees and some very tiny yellow butterflies checking out the purple flowers, but it did look like an overgrown weed patch.

They were going for LEED Platinum certification and I'm sure that involves rainwater harvesting. But what that means exactly, I have no clue. I don't see anything in the blog (which is a bit scattered) about burying tanks to capture rainwater.

At the very end of this page on their site, they show a concept drawing of the front yard, which is very different than what is there now.




Susan and I will have to head in the direction of 631 and hope we run into the owners some time so we can ask them some questions.

Well there you go. Lots of hard scape on the drawing, none of which ended up in the yard.

I’m thinking they ran out of money.

From what I'm seeing in the concept sketch, the front yard was basically going to be flat. I just see a little bit of a grade away from the house.

What they ended up with was a big hole with a stone wall around the entire perimeter (you can kind of see the wall in my pics). The front yard is something like 50 x 20-ish feet. Excavation and stone work couldn't have been cheap.

And they're dumping the downspouts from the porch roof down into the moat.

This makes no sense.

What is this thing you call a rain garden?


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