Then and Now
We installed the rain garden last year around June (that’s June 2014), and now we have a full year to evaluate it. I personally think that the rain garden looked great from the moment we installed it. This year, it looks better than I could have imagined. The flowers have grown tall and strong. The soil is healthy and rich. Below is a graphic showing a picture from before we did anything in 2014 (on the left) beside an image from this year (July 2015) with the plants really growing and maturing (on the right).
We’ve also started detoxing Jed’s yard after years of standard landscape maintenance. Standard maintenance includes using chemicals to fertilize the grass along with pesticides and herbicides to help the lawn stay green. We’ve switched all of that up. We’ve stopped all synthetic fertilizers and pesticides. No toxic stuff is put on the lawn at anytime during the year. For a farm to be considered “organic”, it has to refrain from chemicals for, at least, three years. Jed is now about half way there. Non-toxic lawns are safer for kids and pets as well as adults and the greater natural environment.
Added Value
One thing I hear all the time from homeowners is that landscape design doesn’t add value to their property. According to a 2007 survey of 2,000 brokers conducted by HomeGain, an online real estate marketing site, an investment into landscape design can bring a return of as much as four times of the investment. When your gardening investment also solves problems like flooding issues, the return can even be bigger.