Hello! I am a native plant landscaper in the Grand Rapids area. The rain garden I will be installing is for my grandmother who has recently hopped on board with native plants. This will be a LARGE install, and we are very excited!

She is on a corner lot with two storm drains on each side, she says during heavy rains the entire area fills up with water and flows over onto the sidewalk. She is in the Plaster Creek watershed, they denied her any curb cuts which is what she really wanted.

She tested the soil permeability a few days ago and said it drained within 8 minutes. She also has an underground creek that flows under her and her neighbors house, her basement is a tiny little Michigan style. As far as I know, no flooding or water issues.

The water we will be directing is from the roofs of the front sun room and the right side of the house, from the downspouts.

All the plants in the photos will be removed except for one shrub on the left corner by the driveway.

The big challenge of this front yard is the Juglone from the handful of walnuts that surround her house. Luckily there is a good amount of native plants that will do just fine with it, and we have already made up a list of possible plants.

In the drawings (last photos) each square is 1 ft.

The last drawing is a rough draft of what we will be doing.

• There will be NO grass in the front yard.
• ALL plants must be Juglone tolerant, and native to Kent county.
• Turn downspouts to flow into a dry creek bed, which will then flow into the rain garden.
• Have a dry pond bed with awesome rocks in the center of rain garden.
• Dry creek bed overflow near corner.
• Surround dry pond bed with native flora, then ground cover (Canadian anemone) that continues around the front and right side of the yard.
• Install a small tree for shade along the front walk (Catalpa)
• Install native shrubs and flora around large shrub.
• A rock bed will be placed in front of the sun room, and will wrap around the right side and the walnut tree on the right. (Not part of the rain garden)
• A sitting area and path will be placed in the center with some patio stones and short ground cover to fill in the area (looking for short juglone tolerant native suggestions).

I'm excited to learn more from this and to become a master rain gardener!