For those with a drainage issue, sounds like a cool plan. One note for folks is to know where your digging. Main Hydro lines or secondary runs buried ten years ago to the outbuilding. Well,Gas or maybe an external oil tank, generator in the shed...

Certainly shaping up to be an I teresti g flood situation in the ottawa area. Will be listening to the usual drama queen news people and some dude being shocked that the house is flooding again. You built on the edge of a river and didn’t raise the house Above all the old watermarks any fool could see on the nearby trees! Duh! Row, row your boat, gently down the stream.....

Agree, it can really help with drainage issues and it should be used to help pull the water away from your home/barns/ and so forth but it also is ideally being created to help recharge your ground water and or used as a way to help water your gardens or fruit tree's or guilds etc. As well as being planted out as a way to provide a "pollinator" productions zone.

Those are the big ones for me, I know for the towns, cities and so forth, they are also after the 4th big one, which is collecting the pollution from Urban living and creating many small sink traps in and among the urban living area's to both slow the rate of movement and have less issues heading into the local water ways.

This one is a mixed bag for me.. while I understand what they are talking about, I also am not quite as happy as the land owner to be "trapping" those into my land and into my yard.. Its a tricky one that one..

The insurance companies locally have been sending out letters with helpful hints and tips on how to prevent issues that they expect will be coming in regards to spring flooding and the resulting damage.

So this morning, lets have a look at the cross section of what a rain garden typically looks like.. It can be adjusted in a small ways depending on spacing, but overall, the main points stand..

1) Ten feet from the foundations of whatever building you are using it for or combo of buildings being used.. even if you are using it as a water sink for your shallow wells, you want to move that back at least an extra 5 feet.

2) if you can you want to use the natural grade but if its not there (it should be) to help you in this regard

Yah I can see city folks getting into neighbourhood squabbles over where things drain. Not much space in many of today’s tiny lots, collecting of mosquitos..heck of a great idea and good to see insurance companies getting involved!

Just a quick note and I will be talking about it more.. the older deeper rain gardens could give issues with mosquitos, but the newer far more shallow rain gardens that are properly planted with the right kinds of plants and properly made for the soil type have now been designed for a much more rapid 24 to 48 hour drainage with 72 being on the max side, this means that you are having lots of dry in between times to keep the hatching and full development of the biters under control.

The depth's have really changed over the years that's for sure.