Synopses & Reviews
Homeowners spend hundreds of dollars watering their yard, but there is an easy way to save money and resources—rain gardening. But what is it? As simple as collecting rain to reuse in front and backyards.
Creating Rain Gardens is a comprehensive book for the DIY-er, covering everything from rain barrels to simple living roofs, permeable patios, and other low-tech affordable ways to save water in the garden.
Water conservation experts Cleo Woelfle-Erskine and Apryl Uncapher walk homeowners through the process, with step-by-step instructions for designing and building swales, French drains, rain gardens, and ephemeral ponds—the building blocks of rain-catching gardens. 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 a gardener needs to create a beautiful rain garden at home.
Review
"This is a hard-working book. It's full of plans, diagrams, checklists, case studies, and solid, practical advice." Green Upgrader
Review
"The book is a beautifully-written practical guide to planning and creating your own rain garden."
Synopsis
"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.
About the Author
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 across North America. His writing on dam removal, environmental justice, and urban gardening has appeared in High Country News and Yes, among other magazines, and in the anthologies Urban Wilds and Dam Nation. An avid gardener, Cleo is also pursuing a PhD in the Energy and Resources group at UC Berkeley where he is investigating how rainwater harvesting affects streamflow.