Eco-friendly garden follows the pattern set by Mother Nature

It's fast becoming a part of the garden landscape language. You read and hear about it and you see it when a friend or neighbor rips up his backyard lawn to build a rain garden.

A large group of gardeners wishing to learn more were at the Coastal Discovery Museum on Hilton Head Island last month to meet David Joyner of the Clemson University Extension Program and see a rain garden installed on the museum grounds. Joining Joyner were Rick Sotiropoulos of Ocean Woods Landscape, Pete Nardi of Hilton Head Public Service District, Russ Charek of LowCountry Rain Barrel and 14 members of the Leadership Hilton Head-Bluffton Class of 2010.

Rain gardens are all about water conservation. We can talk about stormwater runoff that takes what's ugly in your yard and puts it in our rivers and streams and how a garden with a rain barrel can prevent that. Yet for many gardeners the big benefit is that the rain garden holds water in the landscape so it can drain into the ground and be taken up by plants, instead of flowing into a street and down a storm drain or drainage ditch.

Joyner stressed the land and water connection by using the image of a bathtub as a basin in the yard. The largest basin in the United States is the Mississippi River that drains 40 percent of the U.S. There is a complex water shed system in South Carolina (it's so flat here). That topography makes for a runoff that ultimately will reach the ocean.

"We try to mimic Mother Nature rather than change it. The plants in a rain garden are doing a lot of work, by purifying the atmosphere and the groundwater," Joyner said.

Where in the yard should the rain garden be installed? Joyner suggested a simple "perk" test can help you decide. Dig a hole about 8-inches wide, fill it with water and if it takes 2 hours to drain, you've got a rain garden. For safety, install the garden about 10 feet away from the house. The soil ratio in the garden should be 60 percent sand, 40 percent compost or top soil.

Sotiropoulos recommends using native plants in the garden as it does not always stay wet. The garden might undergo periods of drought that natives can handle. Plus, the plants grow well in sun and shade. Sadly, there is limited access to natives at garden centers as true natives can be costly and growers don't like to grow them as they don't sell well.

Joyner recommended doing a soil test before planting or amending the soil. Take a pint of the garden soil to the County Extension office located across from First Presbyterian Church on William Hilton Parkway on Hilton Head and across from Lowe's garden center in Beaufort. The test costs $6, and results will be mailed.

There are 60- and 80-gallon rain barrels available at LowCountry Rain Barrel. You can view a demonstration barrel at the Hilton Head Public Service District Customer Service Center at 21 Oak Park Drive.

"Rain Gardening in the South" by Helen Kraus and Anne Spafford is an excellent reference book. If you want to participate in building a rain garden or have questions about the rain garden initiative, e-mail leadership

class2010@yahoo.com.

GO CHECK IT OUT

Local gardeners who have spent many an hour attempting to extract the tough saw palmettos from their yards may be reluctant to plant this native in their rain garden. However, saw palmetto is now considered a threatened plant in the Lowcountry as it is on the valuable for wildlife list.

The wonderfully fragrant, native fetterbush is becoming hard to find in our wooded areas. Once, the scent of its March-flowering bloom perfumed the entire Lowcountry.

The late author Carl Wellard wrote that if there is any single genus of plants that could be used here, but is under-used, it is the viburnum. Landscapers most often use the non-native viburnum varieties as they are evergreen. The V. obovatum, like other native viburnums, will shed its leaves in autumn.

All of the listed plants, native or not have this in common: Once established they survive without additional water.

It took the Leadership Class members 30 minutes to make a rain garden with these plants (they had dug the sod out of the 300-foot-wide garden the day before):

• Saw Palmetto (Serenoa repens)

• Fetterbush (Lyonia lucida)

• Sweetgrass (Sweetspire)

• Buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis)

• Sweetspire (Itea virginica; "Little Henry")

• Variegated Acorus Grass (A. gramineus variegatus)

• Blue Flag Iris (Iris virginica)

• Bloodflower (Asclepias curassavica)

• Bee-balm (Monarda didyma)

• Rudbeckia (R. fulgida)

• Lantana (Lantana; "Miss Huff")

• Sedum (S. matrona)

• Viburnum (V. obovatum)