Let's Build a Rain Garden leads children into Michigan ecology through verse. They get a close up look at the fun creatures and native plants that thrive inside a rain garden while learning the more high-level terms STORMWATER and WATERSHED. The book is written for children, however adults will enjoy taking notes on the basic steps for building a rain garden as well. Be a part of the solution to stop the pollution. It all begins with YOU!

“A beautifully-written, practical guide to planning and creating your own rain garden.” —Green Upgrader You probably spend hundreds of dollars watering your yard, but there is an easy way to save money and resources—by collecting rain to reuse in front and backyards. In Creating Rain Gardens, water conservation experts Cleo Woelfle-Erskine and Apryl Uncapher walk you through the entire process, with step-by-step instructions for designing and building swales, French drains, rain gardens, and ephemeral ponds. From soil preparation, planting, troubleshooting, and maintenance, to selecting palettes of water-loving plants that provide four-season interest and a habitat for wildlife, Creating Rain Gardens covers everything you need to create a beautiful rain garden at home.

Homeowners spend hundreds of dollars watering their yard, but there is an easy way to save money and resources—rain gardening. But what is it? As simple as collecting rain to reuse in front and backyards. Creating Rain Gardens is a comprehensive book for the DIY-er, covering everything from rain barrels to simple living roofs, permeable patios, and other low-tech affordable ways to save water in the garden. Water conservation experts Cleo Woelfle-Erskine and Apryl Uncapher walk homeowners through the process, with step-by-step instructions for designing and building swales, French drains, rain gardens, and ephemeral ponds—the building blocks of rain-catching gardens. From soil preparation, planting, troubleshooting, and maintenance, to selecting palettes of water-loving plants that provide four-season interest and a habitat for wildlife, Creating Rain Gardens covers everything a gardener needs to create a beautiful rain garden at home.

Rain gardens are at the forefront of the green revolution. This environmentally friendly landscaping captures rainwater runoff rather than redirecting it into storm drains. The result is less erosion, less water pollution, and a beautiful, low-maintenance, sustainable garden. This is the first rain garden handbook for the backyard home gardener. Co-authors Robert Domm and Lynn Steiner draw on hands-on experience to help homeowners build beautiful rain gardens in their own yards. Illustrated with color photography, this instructive book offers specific advice about planning, building, planting, and maintaining your garden. Learn about city grants, how to calculate runoff, rain barrels, attracting wildlife, gray water recycling, and much more.

In this eloquent plea for compassion and respect for all species, journalist and gardener Nancy Lawson describes why and how to welcome wildlife to our backyards. Through engaging anecdotes and inspired advice, profiles of home gardeners throughout the country, and interviews with scientists and horticulturalists, Lawson applies the broader lessons of ecology to our own outdoor spaces. Detailed chapters address planting for wildlife by choosing native species; providing habitats that shelter baby animals, as well as birds, bees, and butterflies; creating safe zones in the garden; cohabiting with creatures often regarded as pests; letting nature be your garden designer; and encouraging natural processes and evolution in the garden. The Humane Gardener fills a unique niche in describing simple principles for both attracting wildlife and peacefully resolving conflicts with all the creatures that share our world.

Backyard Water Gardens is a complete overview of everything you need to know in order to create a backyard water feature, from ideas, to installation, to maintaining, to stocking with plants and fish.

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.

Artful Rainwater Design has three main parts: first, the book outlines five amenity-focused goals that might be highlighted in a project: education, recreation, safety, public relations, and aesthetic appeal. Next, it focuses on techniques for ecologically sustainable stormwater management that complement the amenity goals. Finally, it features diverse case studies that show how designers around the country are implementing principles of artful rainwater design.

In a time of climate change and mass extinction, how we garden matters more than ever: “An outstanding and deeply passionate book.” —Marc Bekoff, author of The Emotional Lives of Animals Plenty of books tell home gardeners and professional landscape designers how to garden sustainably, what plants to use, and what resources to explore. Yet few examine why our urban wildlife gardens matter so much—not just for ourselves, but for the larger human and animal communities. Our landscapes push aside wildlife and in turn diminish our genetically programmed love for wildness. How can we get ourselves back into balance through gardens, to speak life's language and learn from other species? Benjamin Vogt addresses why we need a new garden ethic, and why we urgently need wildness in our daily lives—lives sequestered in buildings surrounded by monocultures of lawn and concrete that significantly harm our physical and mental health. He examines the psychological issues around climate change and mass extinction as a way to understand how we are short-circuiting our response to global crises, especially by not growing native plants in our gardens. Simply put, environmentalism is not political; it's social justice for all species marginalized today and for those facing extinction tomorrow. By thinking deeply and honestly about our built landscapes, we can create a compassionate activism that connects us more profoundly to nature and to one another.

Rain gardens encompass all possible elements that can be used to capture, channel, divert and make the most of the rain and snow that fall on a property. They have the potential to make beautiful additions to our environment. Rain Gardens is the first book on sustainable water management schemes suitable for students and professionals.