Rain gardens can have a number of benefits to a landscape, including an appealing look and being a sustainable component of an area. However, there are a number of variables that can cause the installation to go sideways. To find out more about rain gardens, we reached out to Brandon Haley, CGM – grounds project manager at SSC Services for Education, a provider of support services for educational institutions.

1. What are the basics a landscaping company needs to know about if they want to add rain garden installation as a service?

Rain gardens can be large or small. Their purpose is to slow runoff so it can infiltrate the ground instead of rushing into storm drains or streams. If the runoff ends up reaching surface water, it will be moving slower and will have many pollutants filtered out. Rain garden installation is more than just putting plants in the ground.

To get drainage effect, you want the soil to be sandy and have good drainage. It is also best to have the garden designed to hold water for up to 24 hours as it drains. This likely means that you will have to shape the land and replace the planting bed soil.

2. What type of maintenance is needed?

Rain gardens need management if you want them to grow and function as designed. Just planting some plants and walking away will leave you with a weedy mess that will not filter water, will be unattractive and could attract rodents.

Weed control programs will be critical for a rain garden to succeed. Rain gardens are prone to weed infestations. If you can, use pre-emergent programs to prevent the weeds from germinating and always check the product label to make sure it can be used in your circumstance. Also, use non-selective weed control methods to keep your planting area free of unwanted growth.

It is also important to keep debris out of the rain garden. Decomposing leaves may be a great form of organic matter in normal landscape beds, but they can alter the drainage properties of a rain garden. Make sure rain gardens are blown free of debris to prevent this. Quarterly visits outside of leaf season will be fine with as-needed visits during the fall.

3. Where is the best place to install one in a home or business?

The best place to install a rain garden is wherever you have drainage issues or have free-flowing water that reaches a drain, water body or impervious surface. The goal is to slow down water and filter it before it reaches ground or surface water supplies. The sky is the limit.

For typical residential properties, this place is likely near gutters. Look for washout areas in mulch as well. Commercial properties can really benefit from using rain gardens in their parking lot edges instead of curb and gutters. Retaining this water instead of directing it into storm drains will take a huge strain off the local watershed. For large properties or projects, reach out to local Riverkeeper organizations to see if they can provide insight into the watershed and the impact that your project can provide.

4. What are the best plants to use, and does that vary on geography?

The best plants are ones that can survive being temporarily submerged as well as survive droughts. The best soil conditions for drainage in rain gardens also causes drought conditions when rainfall is low. Oddly enough, these qualities can be found in the same plants. In many plants, the same root structures that can hold water during droughts can also hold oxygen when submerged. Plants native to prairie and wetland ecosystems perform great.

Exact plant types will vary by region but will typically be grasses and flowering perennials that are native to your area. Throughout much of the country, black eyed susans flag iris and coneflowers will work great. Check with your state extension service for local recommendations.

5. How big can they be; what is average time to install?

There is no size limit, large or small, for a rain garden. To estimate installation time, expect to excavate the soil a foot deep and replace with a sandy loam. Also, look to see if any berms are needed to contain the water. This may be a good use of the soil that you removed.

6. What type of equipment is needed?

Small gardens can be planted by hand, but anything with size will need either a skid-steer, mini excavator or compact skid-steer to be efficient. Remember that you may need to remove soil offsite.

“Rain gardens need management if you want them to grow and function as designed.” Brandon Haley, grounds project manager at SSC Services for Education

7. Any advice on how to sell the services to consumers?

Rain gardens are an opportunity to sell your clients a project that will add lasting beauty to their property while making a positive impact on their local environment. Having clean, clear water supplies is one of our basic human needs and installing a rain garden gives an individual the opportunity to make impact on their local water supplies.

Show your prospective clients the benefits that rain gardens can provide to their local watershed. Then, show them that they can make a difference through adding flowers to their yard and that you can provide the installation and management services to keep it thriving. Never mind the potential for increased property values. It is a win for everyone.

8. Anything else a landscaper should know about installing rain gardens?

Like any other installation, the final result will depend on the quality of plants and the technique used to install them. Take your time. Research your plant choices and visit some local installations to see what you like and do not like.

Water can be tough to tackle, and not all problems it causes are obvious at first. Enter erosion, primarily caused by high water levels and poor drainage.

“When we talk erosion, we combine that, in our field, with drainage because one typically leads to the other,” says Nathan Boliek, design/sales manager at TDH Landscaping in Monkton, Md. “I would say probably 30% of the people we see are dealing with some sort of erosion or drainage issue.”

Boliek says erosion issues are likely to become more apparent during the spring and fall months, when precipitation levels are up.

Drainage is indispensable.

But all is not lost. There are several ways to correct the problem and head off erosion.

“The first thing we tend to do is handle the water coming off the house,” says Allison Lewis, landscape designer and sales manager at Stauffer Lawn & Landscape in Auburn, Kan.

Lewis says her team at Stauffer has managed enough drainage issues that they now have a standard solution.

“I like to use, and we’ve kind of implemented it as a company standard, (a) 4-inch PVC sewer and drainpipe. It’s got a lot more longevity,” she says. “So, if we can get the water away from the house and get it so that it’s not circling back toward the foundation or down a hill, that’s helpful.”

On the other side of the coin, Boliek says TDH tends to try and find an alternative approach before installing drainpipes or anything else.

“First and foremost, we try to manage the water above ground,” he says. “Meaning if you can divert that water, or dissipate that water, in a way that allows it to be absorbed and run off to an area where it can be handled, it’s better than doing it underground. Although, that’s not always possible; sometimes drains or catch basins are required to manage water and avoid erosion.”

Boliek says he reverts to using catch basins and channel drains in areas that are already at the lowest elevation point on the property or are enclosed by features in the landscape like buildings, driveways or patios.

“Water is a very destructive element, and left to its own devices, it’ll find the least-traveled path into the problem and then become much more expensive.” Nathan Boliek, design/sales manager, TDH Landscaping

Another tool in the arsenal against erosion is evaluating the grounds and re-grading when necessary to create a slope or slant within the landscape to change its elevation.

“Obviously grading is a huge part of it as well,” Lewis says. “We’re pretty hilly here (in Kansas). You’re going to run from completely flat to a steep grade all on one property. The front yard can be completely flat, and the backyard can drop off crazy enough that you can’t put a swing set on it or even patio furniture.”

Lewis says grading is essential to controlling the drainage problem and ensuring that the water runs off to the designated location.

“Making sure we have that grade established is really good to make sure that we’re controlling the run-off on that property, so it’s not creating a water issue for the neighbor on the bottom or off to the side,” she says.

The swale solution.

Grading is also key to designing drainage or open-lawn swales, something that Boliek says he tends to use quite a bit on residential properties.

“Some of the methods we use include re-grading the terrain to create what’s called a drainage swale,” he says. “Typically, for residents, it’s one that is covered with seed or sod to convey the water… You’ll want to have at least 2-3% pitch for gravity to carry that water away and not have any puddling.”

While swales are great for wide-open spaces, Boliek says they can be utilized in confined areas as well.

“When we have an area that will not sustain turf, or there’s not enough area to maintain the turf there, meaning it’s too small or too narrow to mow, we’ll often do a swale lined with stone, which then will convey the water and slow it down and help to eliminate the erosion that’s being caused,” he says.

And these stone-lined swales can be as basic or as elaborate as the client wishes.

“We often do dry stream beds, which are more of an aesthetic version of the stone swale where we use gravel and boulders and things to look like a stream bed, but it’s really just a more attractive drainage swale,” Boliek says.

Lewis says planting beds can be another aesthetic answer to stopping erosion. She recommends filling the beds with ground cover, mulch or decorative rock.

The benefits of re-grading and implementing swales or drainage beds is two-fold, Boliek says. Clients can get more use out of their landscape with a visual statement.

“You can make an area of a yard usable that’s not usable if you can correct an erosion issue,” he says. “And there’s aesthetic impacts, too. Some of the prettiest gardens are planted primarily to stop erosion. So, in addition to correcting an erosion issue, you also get a lovely garden.”

Plant with a purpose.

And the planting doesn’t stop at gardens — it’s the finishing touch on any good swale. Both Boliek and Lewis say plant life can help combat erosion.

“Vegetation is a great way to deal with erosion,” Boliek says. “Even trees help. All our watersheds in the metropolitan area are planted with trees and the trees help to absorb runoff and reduce some of the inert matter that winds up in the water.”

“It’s about getting something down on the ground to hold everything in place,” Lewis adds. “It’s about keeping the soil covered because it’s super windy here so the wind will erode things away, the water will erode way, so if we can limit the exposure, that will help 100%. For lawn situations, we prefer sod. That’s probably what 90% of the yards are here.”

Boliek suggests a groundcover with surface roots like vinca or ivy. He adds turf works, too, to strain the sediment and help clean the water as it runs downhill.

Lewis says overseeding is also beneficial to getting seed down to hold everything in place. She adds that after overseeding, an erosion control blanket should be laid over the seed.

“It’s basically a woven plastic,” she says of the blankets. “It looks like straw. You see it on a lot of highway plantings because it works on steep grades. It’s great because it will keep everything in place and holds the soil in place as well. And it’ll just slowly decay over time.”

Address erosion early on.

All these solutions can be used for new construction landscape design, where Lewis says erosion is a big problem.

“I would say it’s not terrible,” Lewis says of erosion in her market. “We’ve got pretty good ground cover and pretty good soil here in the state of Kansas. The biggest issues are on new construction sites.”

She says that’s just due to the nature of the homebuilding process.

“I’m sure they build houses the same way just about everywhere, but here what they do is strip the entire lot,” Lewis says. “Basically, they harvest all the topsoil off and build a house on it for three to nine months or however long it takes, and then they bring that back and will wait on us landscapers to either seed it or sod it.

“And in that process, it’ll rain or it’ll snow, and that’s where our erosion tends to be the worst.” Lewis says it can be difficult sometimes to get clients to invest in erosion control measures early on, as they usually have greater plans for their yards they would like to put the money toward.

“A lot of times, with new constructions especially, I try to express that these are the most important things for the longevity of your landscape,” she says. “So, these are the things that I’d invest the money in first, because they are the things that will prevent problems down the line and keep you from having to redo things.”

Making the problem known.

Boliek says he doesn’t usually face pushback when he tells clients that they need to address the erosion and drainage on their property.

“Typically, if the erosion or drainage has gotten to a point where they have to call a professional, it’s something that they have to address,” he says. “Water is a very destructive element, and left to its own devices, it’ll find the least-traveled path into the problem and then become much more expensive.”

For Lewis, she says there’s a lack of awareness about erosion control and the benefits of early intervention.

“I think more emphasis needs to be put on it,” she says. “It’s always one of those hindsight’s 20/20 situations. I think with new home construction especially, we’re the last ones to go in, so there may or may not be as much funding as you’d like.

“If we can educate the homeowner on that and educate the home builder on those values it will add into the house, that would be tremendous.”

With that lack of awareness, comes a lot of failed attempts from clients. Having to correct a DIYer’s mistake is a common occurrence for Boliek and Lewis.

“I’d say there’s very little knowledge out there for the layperson when it comes to drainage and erosion,” he says. “We see a lot of the time that people try to do their own drainage work and it’s not working because people just don’t understand the concept of proper grade.”

Lewis says hiring a reputable company can save everyone a lot of headaches. She adds that taking the time to really get to the root of the issue and studying the property is also invaluable.

“Research makes a huge difference,” she says. “We have had to come in and correct other people’s mistakes because they thought they could do it and it just didn’t work out.”

Palmer Higgins and his team at Chenmark have invested heavily in education, though they’re finding opportunities in unconventional ways.

There are plenty of differences between the green and hospitality industries, but one thing that remains the same is a focus on satisfying the clients. Roughly 60 Chenmark employees enrolled in the Ritz-Carlton training program to find out what sets them apart from other hotel chains nationwide. Hint: It’s not just luxury suites or skyline views seen from the windows.

“If you’re focused on customer service, you’re focused on the wrong thing. You should be focused on customer excellence,” Higgins says. “Everyone does customer service, but if you really want to differentiate, you need to shoot for legendary.”

Chenmark ranked No. 43 on the 2021 Top 100 list, earning $50 million in revenue from 2020. For Higgins – a partner at Chenmark and the CEO of Mainely Grass, one of Chenmark’s several companies – constantly learning about the green industry specifically is essential. Before Chenmark partnered with Mainely Grass, he was a chief operating officer at a company that created Spanish and French textbooks.

But even for employees who have always worked in the green industry, Higgins says educational opportunities are important. The big takeaway from the Ritz-Carlton program was that they needed to raise the bar.

“You’re not just checking a box to resolve a situation – that’s table stakes. That’s not bad, but that’s not good enough,” he says. “What more can I do? What more can we do as a company to go above and beyond?”

Higgins also saw 51 employees enroll in a turf management course at the University of Massachusetts. Higgins was one of them, and his employees asked him frequently how he was doing. They were all in it together, but they wanted to see if Higgins could earn an A.

“I don’t think it wasn’t competitiveness in the sense of trying to do better than other people,” Higgins says, “but among my management team and I, we certainly had an internal competition.”

Due to COVID-19, the classes were held remotely, one of the silver linings of operating amidst a pandemic. Before this year, the drive out to Amherst – where the classes were held at a UMass campus – discouraged many of the employees from enrolling in the class. Only a handful of employees would take the course before the pandemic, but having the ability to log in and learn helped make it more accessible.

Of course, it wasn’t just accessibility that intrigued the employees: Mainely Grass paid for course enrollment and offered a $1,500 bonus for anyone who completed the course, plus an extra $2 per hour for anyone who earned an A grade.

“If you’re focused on customer service, you’re focused on the wrong thing. You should be focused on customer excellence.” Palmer Higgins, CEO, Mainely Grass

It certainly wasn’t an easy A. Higgins says the course was a time investment, as it was four classes a week, and each class required roughly three hours of video review outside of class time. Then, once in the class each week, it required an hour-long Q&A discussion on the reviewed material. They also took roughly four quizzes a week.

“The hardest class specifically was probably plant pathology,” Higgins says, joking that there are too many Greek words. “That’s getting pretty technical into plant disease and mechanisms in which they infect hosts and spread.”

Higgins says paying for the courses wasn’t an issue for the company despite the pandemic. He added that he was proud to say that no Chenmark companies furloughed or laid off any employees due to COVID-19.

In the future, he says Chenmark will continue to invest in employee education. They’re developing an internal training program, and while they’re not sure if they’ll go back to the UMass classes should they be in person rather than virtual, Higgins says they’ll seek out education opportunities regardless.

“At a high level, education is something that I’m going to continue to back pretty strongly, whether it’s another crack at turf management or diving into pest control,” Higgins says.