Wauwatosa Rain Garden

Inspired Bio-swale Concept

Project Details

Project overview:

A local merchant referred the client to us. The objective was to deal with a water issue that they had on site. They were currently running their sump pump from the South side of the home to the North side through a 2” corrugated pipe above the surface of the ground. This pipe was then discharging water down their driveway and the water was directly being sent into the storm sewer. Other problems they were having with this method was that being on the bottom of a hill in the cul-de-sac they were prone to a lot of surface water runoff, and the driveway became a slippery ice rink in the winter that could have been a safety issue for them as well as a liability. We decided to create a fifty foot long bio-swale / rain garden that would minimize the majority of their water issues and allow the water to infiltrate back into the ground on site. Along this swale we used a combination of Mississippi decorative stone with black granite boulder accents. The rain garden was then planted with a 90% native 10% non native plant pallet.

Materials used:

  • Dingo
  • Sod cutter
  • Drainage pipe
  • Mississippi decorative stone
  • Black granite boulders
  • Mixed hardwood mulch
  • Sensitive fern
  • Blue false indigo
  • Liatris
  • Turtlehead
  • Pennsylvania sedge
  • Fox sedge
  • Copper oval headed rush
  • Wild stonecrop sedum
  • Lilly x species
  • Pixie x meadowbrite coneflower
  • Mugo mugo pine
  • St. Johns wort
  • Musclewood
  • Blue flag iris
  • Amsonia