Creating Rain Gardens: Capturing the Rain for Your Own Water-Efficient Garden

"A beautifully-written, practical guide to planning and creating your own rain garden." --Green Upgrader

You probably spend hundreds of dollars watering your yard, but there is an easy way to save money and resources--by collecting rain to reuse in front and backyards. In Creating Rain Gardens, water conservation experts Cleo Woelfle-Erskine and Apryl Uncapher walk you through the entire process, with step-by-step instructions for designing and building swales, French drains, rain gardens, and ephemeral ponds. From soil preparation, planting, troubleshooting, and maintenance, to selecting palettes of water-loving plants that provide four-season interest and a habitat for wildlife, Creating Rain Gardens covers everything you need to create a beautiful rain garden at home.

Apryl Uncapher is an ecological designer dedicated to rainwater harvesting modeled on nature’s examples. Co-author of the San Francisco Rainwater Harvesting Guide, Apryl has consulted on a variety of integrative stormwater management and water recycling projects for more than a decade. With a degree in innovative design engineering from Purdue University and accredited as a LEED professional, Apryl continually sources opportunities to participate in water projects that inspire a sustainable water consciousness. Apryl currently resides in San Francisco where she is passionately preserving water resources with two little girls splashing and dreaming by her side.

Cleo Woelfle-Erskine is a hydrologist, educator, and scholar of water. He co-founded the Greywater Guerrillas, and has led dozens of community-based workshops on rainwater harvesting and greywater reuse. His writing has appeared in outlets like High Country News, Yes, Urban Wilds, Dam Nation, and Sustainable Water. An avid gardener, Woelfle-Erskine is also a teacher of equity and environmental justice at the University of Washington.