Projects / Plate 03
The Rain Meadow
A waterlogged lawn in a 6 m wide garden was replaced with a rain garden swale and a dense, low-input meadow.
- Client
- Townhouse back garden
- Site
- Narrow terraced plot on heavy clay
- Area
- 95 m²
- Timeline
- 8 months, design to first flowering
Select an image to enlarge. Illustrative imagery.
Site constraints
- Heavy clay that stays wet from November to March.
- Downpipe from the house roof discharged straight onto the lawn.
- Everything — soil, stone, plants — had to come through the house.
Design process
We redirected the downpipe into a shallow planted swale sized for typical storm events, then reduced the lawn to a brick path laid on a permeable base. Planting was specified as plugs to keep costs and carrying weight down.
Planting detail
- Iris sibirica
- Carex testacea
- Knautia macedonica
- Achillea millefolium
- Sanguisorba officinalis
- Deschampsia cespitosa
- Lythrum salicaria
- Daucus carota
Scope used
Planting design commission: planting plan, drainage concept sketch, plant schedule and one setting-out visit.
Planting design — from £1,800
