RainWise Permaculture Garden Home

Open (virtually) Sunday, Sept 13

Site Description

FEATURES: Water Conservation, Design Innovation, Stormwater Infiltration, Urban Farming

With support from a rebate through the RainWise program, this property manages 100% of the stormwater falling on the roof, right on site. The RainWise installation includes a rain garden and two cisterns. The RainWise project was part of a much larger landscape installation that includes the patio, retaining walls, edible and permaculture gardens, and a lawn area redesign. The RainWise rebate paid approximately $7000 of the entire cost. The landscape design was done by Jackie Cramer of Beacon Food Forest and installed by Jake Harris and Stone Soup Gardens. The rain garden is part of Stewardship Partners’ 12,000 Rain Gardens project.

Landscape Edibles: Following a permaculture and food-forest approach, and utilizing the rain catchment system to its full extent, the landscape was designed to grow food and build soils at the same time. Edibles include persimmon, olives, figs, peaches, apples, pears, plums, cherries, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, Chilean guava and more. But the yard is still primarily designed for human use: play areas for kids, outdoor patio space for extending indoor living space when the sun is out.

As part of the redesign, the remaining lawn area was seeded with a “micro-clover blend” of grass and clover for drought tolerance and reduced maintenance (less mowing, no fertilizing, and doesn’t need watering)