It began life as an unassuming mud pit a few inches deep with a berm around the border. The pile of rocks under the downspout are to prevent erosion. The fence is to keep the dogs from trampling everything, or worse.
I found a native fern on late-season clearance and transplanted asters, prairie smoke, and a wild rose from elsewhere in my yard, plus sowed some swamp milkweed and hairy rose mallow seeds. It hit -30F that winter, and nearly everything (except for the prairie smoke) died. None of the seeds germinated.
The rain garden mostly got put on the back burner in 2019. It was taken over by various weeds and native volunteers. I did find some more ferns for it, but wasn't optimistic that they would make it. I also worked on a new fence.
The good news was that the rain garden was still doing its job of letting water runoff slowly drain away. Also, at least one monarch caterpillar took advantage of the common milkweed and smartweed that had popped up. (Monarch caterpillars can only eat milkweed, but they prefer to go elsewhere when they reach the chrysalis stage.)
Finally this year I picked up some plants to fill the pit in. Black eyed susan, purple coneflower, swamp rose mallow, a sunflower, and marsh blazing star. Some wild roses and asters also found their way in there, and the ferns are flourishing. One rose mallow has already died, but the rest of the plants are establishing themselves.
Once I get this rain garden established, I would like to make one along the edge of my driveway as well - but that one will be much more of an undertaking.
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