These rain gardens exist in a wetland adjacent space, and spend part of the year submerged completely under water. The native plants utilized are all wetland tolerant species that enjoy having intermittent wet feet. This property is an extremely productive habitat space, providing safe breeding space, food, shelter and hiding spots for hundreds of wildlife species, most memorably the turtles. When we began building the new garden beds, it was during turtle breeding season and the turtles would stop by and visit our construction area. They had fun and kind of made a mess! The solution agreed upon by the homeowners was to set up a separate new bed area allocated specially for the turtles. Shortly the egg laying concluded and the landscaping project moved ahead on schedule. It can be like watching reality tv sometimes, when creatures observe and react to organic changes in the landscape. The definition of Ecology is “the study of the interactions between organisms and their environment.” Natural landscaping immerses us in a bright, rich, 4D world of new experiences right in our own life space.

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