What to Expect From Your New Rain Garden
Thank you for doing your part to revitalize our Texas waterways and natural habitat with your choice to install a rain garden! When heavy rain falls in Central Texas, many of our rain garden clients rush to their porches to see their rain gardens fill up. This is an exciting moment, when the magic of the interaction between water and wildlife really comes together! To keep this joy going, you probably have some questions about caring for your new rain gardens and native plants. Rain gardens and native plant landscapes have different growing habits and care needs than traditional plants and lawns. The following are a few things you can expect from your new garden:
Growing In
Once planted, your landscape may not have the "full appearance" of traditional landscaping. Native plants are best planted small, with 4" to 1 gallon pots, as root establishment best happens while in the native soil, not in potting soil. This will acclimate the plant more completely to the soil conditions and natural water conditions, for the most healthy and lasting plant. Within 6 months to a year, your plants will likely be close to their full size and your garden will look complete.
Surprise Volunteers
Many native Texas plants spread through the landscape by self-seeding and propagation by our precious pollinators (hummingbirds, butterflies, and other insects) and birds. You will find many plants will volunteer to grow in your rain garden in a place they were not originally planted. We find these surprises are a beautiful addition to our design but if you don't agree simply pull them up or transplant them where you want them to be. Some noxious invasives may spread to your rain garden this way, but it is important to correctly identify what plant species has arrived in your rain garden to determine if it is a helpful volunteer or an invader.
Turf
Bermuda and other common turfgrasses were not historically a part of Texas native habitat. However, long and short bunch grasses and sedges as well as groundcovers were here. We work hard to restore this native habitat but will help you designate an area of turf if you desire. We prefer using Habiturf grass blend over bermudagrass as bermudagrass can overgrow a bed of native plants if not kept in check with regular weeding, deep edging material, or trimming to bare dirt around the bed areas.
Maintenance
Your level of maintenance is your choice based on your aesthetic preferences. After establishment with proper irrigation to help root growth the first year, your garden may be tended to based on your desired level of attention. If you want to sit by comfortably and watch, your garden will grow into a beautiful prairie with wandering volunteers and different views each season or year as the plants decide to adapt and create their new habitat. Or you can occasionally add a new specimen or compost for your enjoyment (see our Native Plant Sales to keep adding plants over time). Or you can have weekly interaction while learning to re-seed, groom and tailor your garden into a more manicured environment. In any case, your plants will love you and you will have the garden you best enjoy.
Basins and Earthworks
To continue to do their job of capturing stormwater runoff effectively, it's best to keep the basin and berms as originally installed. Adding a berm or filling in a basin or swale with new landscaping could change the flow of water and it's capturing ability. Take care to not impact the elevations of earthworks in your garden without consulting our team for guidance.
Weed or Valuable Plant?
Traditional landscaping may often label a Texas native as a 'weed' and aggressively work to remove the un-designated plant. We suggest waiting to see what the plant looks like when it gets bigger and identify if this volunteer in your yard would be a desirable addition to your landscape.
Seasonal Change
During winter, many plants will appear to be dead, but will be dormant. Some will die back all the way to their roots and have no visible parts remaining above ground. This is just part of how our native plants are, and why we mix in so many diverse species so that something is always providing texture and color. In the winter season, native grasses are the primary source of visual interest.
First Winter
To give your trees and other plants extra help through their first winter, you can insulate the pants from the cold with water. It sounds counterintuitive, but plants handle wet-cold much better than dry-cold, so if a cold snap is coming, you can give everything a good manual irrigation run soaking to help them out. If you have a hose-end irrigation timer, remember to disconnect and take your timer inside if we’re about to get a hard freeze!
First Spring
When the trees begin to leaf out again in the spring, you will notice that some come as early as February, and some may be as late as the end of April. Watch your local, established pecans, if a tree isn't leafed out by the time the pecans all have leaves then that one may need to be replaced. You can always "check the pulse" of your trees with a scratch test that removes a tiny bit of bark to see if there is green inside. Occasionally the top of a tree will die back and show no green inside, but the roots will still be strong and the tree can resprout from the base, so please allow us to double-check before declaring any trees dead and removing them.
Spring Cleaning
There is a great opportunity for a bit of spring cleaning in February. We give the plants a trim at that time of year. It primes them for new growth and gets everything looking it’s best for spring. We’ve noticed while doing maintenance that if it’s a very windy, rainy, or cold day that butterflies (and other wildlife attracted to your native plants) are hiding in the tall grasses and other vegetation! For this reason, avoid cutting back vegetation in these weather conditions. Wait for a nice day so that all your wildlife guests can relocate safely. The best practice is to maintain the garden in sections, rather than all at once, so there’s still a bit of wild space for the wildlife you’ve attracted to shelter if the Texas weather turns harsh again. Please keep us in min if you would like our team to come do maintenance!