It's raining, it's pouring

It's been raining like CRAZY lately, which is annoying when Franco and Lola refuse to go outside (little divas), but it's great for the plants - and particularly our rain garden. 

I planted a few more things in the rain garden, because a few of the plants didn't take and it wasn't filling out enough for my patience.

I added blanketflower, yarrow, butterfly weed and two new grasses. Here it is now. 

I even have a few blooms, which is nice.

 The city already came out to inspect it, and it passed. This means we should be getting a check for about $400 in the mail soon. Worth our time and effort, I would say.

Reminder: Our city has a rain garden program. If you follow their instructions and get it pre-approved, they will reimburse you $4/square foot, give you money off your water bill and throw in a free rain barrel. 

It was a little bit of yellow tape, but it was definitely worth it in the end. The reimbursement pretty much covered the cost of the garden and mulch. 

I found out later that there is only a certain amount of funding per year, and this year's funding is all dried up. We just missed the cut-off, so we're thrilled about that. All-in-all, it's an awesome deal.

And, even if you don't have a rain garden program, rain gardens are a great way to conserve water and reduce run-off. Help Mother Nature out - build a rain garden.