Ann, I'm so glad that you are taking the class! I noticed your name while answering questions but just put it together that you are the teacher I talked to a few months back about rain gardens at your school. Let me know if you would like copies of the lessons I have taught about rain gardens, water quality, stormwater and designing a garden.

Is this all around a no-go? No. Go for it. The concepts, principles and many of the plants that you will learn in a Rain Gardener class can be applied to planting this space appropriately even if it not used to manage storm water or as a rain garden. Take the class. Plant this garden after a good assessment of the site conditions, the markets needs and the actual human traffic patterns. Both will be good for your professional development.

The photo labeled "two" with no snow... If you dig a gravel walkway from the driveway down to the rain garden location to force the water to the desired location the water will not affect the basement. Curve the walkway all the way up into the corner by the garage door, or use something very densely rooted as an edging to deflect the water to the walkway. Siberian or Japanese Iris work well for this,or even Liriope which is evergreen.

Here are some new angles and new thoughts. Yellow represents the downspouts. Orange represents the low, soggy spot where I believe the sump pump empties- which you could imagine just cycles the same water out and in over and over,,,right? The magenta is where a potential rain garden could go though it feels sort of unanchored or floating in the yard, from an aesthetic viewpoint, in my opinion. I included a side shot with the tape measure pulled to the 10ft mark. You can see there are window wells where the basement ends. There is a "bed" up against the length of the house with some plastic edging, plastic landscaping fabric, some landscaping stone, and some mulch. I have attempted to plant in it once before and it is clay with ancient remnants of metal garbage bits- delightful! *The Hydrological Soils map sites our plot on either Sandy Clay Loam or Clay: it is inexact. *Our roof area of this side of the house, according to the county map, measures 312ft square. 30% of this is approximately a 94ft square garden. This side is facing east, so receives strong morning sun. There is a large black walnut out of frame on the left side that would cast a summer afternoon shadow over much of the magenta oval: a nice respite from the heat for my garden.