13 Beautiful Design Ideas for Rain Gardens

If you’re looking for creative and smart ways to make the most of a rainy garden, you’re in the right place. Understanding your soil type, observing the land, and designing a climate-specific garden is far better than mimicking garden styles from across the country! 

Dry gardening aims to conserve water by using native and drought-tolerant plants, but rain gardens aim to work with the natural flow of water and make smarter use of the rain. 

Zen Master Garden

If you’re looking for a place to relax, unwind, and meditate, this rain garden design is for you. Focus on natural elements, smooth rocks, a water feature, and lots of water-loving plants. 

Get creative by digging a small pond where water naturally gravitates on your property. Surround the pond with smooth, stacked stones. Chisel out an area on the top stone where water can dribble down, forming a tiny waterfall. Add rain-loving plants like impatiens, fiber optic grass, marsh marigolds, and swamp milkweed to the area leading down to your tiny pond. 

If you love to journal, escape in a fiction thriller, or complete daily crossword puzzles, consider adding a chair or hammock to your peaceful oasis. 

Capture Rainwater

Capturing rainwater is an economical, eco-friendly, and fun way to water your garden. What’s more beautiful than conserving and repurposing natural resources like water?

When combined with an efficient irrigation system, you won’t have to worry about your well, er, barrel, running dry during prolonged periods of heat and drought. 

Purchase a barrel that suits your space but also whose size matches your garden’s needs. It should be large enough to capture rain from storms all season without overflowing. There are lots of attractive barrels out there, so choose one that blends into your home or garden scheme. 

Natural Rain Garden 

Natural rain gardens combined with a mix of native plants and shrubs help absorb run-off rainwater and remove pollutants that would otherwise be deposited into your local water system. 

A natural rain garden consists of an inflow area, a basin, and an overflow area. These components allow you to use any slightly sloped area of your property to your advantage. Essentially, you want to fill the basin with water-loving plants of various types and sizes. Their root systems will absorb some of the water and slow it down so the remainder of the land in the overflow area and beyond won’t become flooded or eroded. 

Install a natural rain garden in areas where you have observed heavy water flowing down into a slightly dipped area. The area where water is becoming stuck is the perfect spot for the basin of this system. 

Keep it Flowing 

Before designing your rain garden, observe your landscape for a whole season. Pay close attention to where the water naturally flows down the land after rain and snow melt. Are there areas that are more eroded than others? Are there areas that remain wetter than others? You can make these work with your design with strategic planning. When you add plants to a wet area on your property, you avoid a potential breeding ground for mosquitoes and other pests. 

Once you identify areas where the water naturally wants to flow, this will be your “stream” that will lead down into your garden. You may not see much water above ground moving during dry spells, but there is likely still water flowing beneath the soil surface. 

To create your “stream”, remove traditional turf and replace it with native grass, microclover, fescue, or even small rocks. Surround it with shrubs, concrete pavers, or other native shrubs or plants if you desire. At the end of your natural stream, install a low-maintenance garden that will be watered without much effort on your part. Mixing sizes and types of plants with varying root depths and styles will provide the best water maintenance. 

Install a French Drain 

If you have greenhouses or other garden infrastructure whose tall sides cause heavy rain to flood certain areas of your property, consider installing a French drain. A French drain installation consists of digging a ditch around the perimeter of the building, removing the grass, laying down geotextile fabric and drainage piping, and covering it with crushed stone. The water slowly drains through the thick layer of crushed stone and into the pipe. The pipe should lead into a road or residential sewer system. 

This project requires a moderate investment and more than a little elbow grease, but it’s worth the hassle. We installed one around the perimeter of our gothic-style high tunnel, and it has made a huge difference in the amount of run-off, soil temperature inside the tunnel, and frost risk, flooding, and fungal activity. 

Cold air, water, and frost used to creep in during the winter months, and when heavy summer rain occurred, the pathways and beds washed away, taking all our expensive amendments with it. Root systems, new transplants, and our productivity suffered.

After the installation of a French drain, we have dry soil year-round and no fears of losing crops from flooding rains. This ultimately saved our tomato production during the devastating rain of July 2023 caused by national weather patterns. Another benefit of crushed stone versus turf is it alleviates the need to mow, grass can’t creep into your building, and it’s attractive! 

Horse Trough Rain Garden

If your home has gutters, creating a rain garden design along a wall is a great way to reuse rainwater. With a few inexpensive items from your local hardware store, including hose fittings, PVC pipe pies, and glue, along with an old garden hose, you can hook your gutter up to drip irrigation that will water crops growing in your trough.  

Use the gutter on a south-facing wall for full sun exposure. Mix annual vegetables, flowers, and herbs in your container. If the garden seems to be getting too much water at any point, simply divert the water temporarily away from your garden. 

Pro tip: This is a great activity to do with children. They’ll love selecting their favorite flowers and herbs to add, checking on them each day, and watching them grow. 

Hang Rain Chains

Rain chains provide functional water maintenance, fun sounds, and garden beauty. The slow trickle of rainwater forced by rain chains may reduce erosion, help conserve water during heavy rainfall, and also add visual stimulation. They’re easy to install and are a good alternative to traditional roofs with lower cost and easier upkeep. Plus, they age well because they’re typically made of copper or another weather-friendly material. 

Position rain chains to hang around your garden to create movement, natural music, and whimsical vibes in your design. If you’re a sucker for a summer rain storm, this type of garden is fun to admire from indoors, too. Add low-maintenance plants nearby or a pot directly underneath them to take advantage of the fallen rainwater. 

Wildlife Garden Featuring a Watering Hole

Providing clean water sources for native birds and pollinators is crucial, especially where access is limited during periods of drought. We talk a lot about inviting them into our gardens by growing their preferred food sources, but why not invite them to stay a while longer and provide them with a safe place to bathe and drink?

Bird baths and pollinator watering holes can be made easily with a ceramic, glass, or plastic basin, some height, and an optional electric pump to keep the water fresh and flowing.

Surround the watering hole with pollinator-friendly flowers like monarda, borage, Joe pye weed, and anise hyssop. The rain will keep your flowers blooming and the water fresh for passing by pollinators.  

Catch the Run-Off

Instead of allowing a low, wet spot to be an eyesore at the bottom of your driveway or a breeding ground for mosquitoes near your backyard patio, make it into something beautiful by adding plants that don’t mind getting their feet wet. 

Build a berm in the low-standing area by digging out any turf and leveling out the soil. Then, based on your knowledge of how the water travels down to this area, create a swale by building up the soil around the berm to keep it from flooding. Add native perennials to the swale to decrease the risk of erosion and whose root system will help slow down and deter some of the water. This will also help keep nutrients in place instead of washing away. 

Visit your local nursery to pick up seeds or native plants. Mix the types of plants and root systems for the best success. Play around with different heights, perennials and annuals, and grasses. 

Raise ‘Em Up

Traditional raised beds provide increased drainage naturally and prevent crops from becoming waterlogged. Create raised beds by shoveling down a walking path and elevating the beds a few inches above the path.

For something a bit more advanced, raised metal beds are all the rage.

They come in different sizes, shapes, and colors. There is definitely at least one (and probably more) that will fit your needs and rain garden design. Some are interchangeable, offering several options in one product. If using Birdies, add gravel on the ground before positioning them in place for increased drainage and to keep weed pressure down. 

Raising your garden beds will also help your growing medium from becoming soggy. And while the outside of metal beds might feel hot to the touch in the summer sun, they won’t damage your precious crops growing inside them.

Create a Container Garden 

I can’t get enough of fabric-lined grow bags. They take the guesswork out of watering and come in lots of different sizes and colors. The smaller bags are a cinch to move inside when inclement weather strikes. Here in zone 5, rosemary isn’t quite hardy enough for our winters, so we store them inside these bags all winter until temperatures are safe. 

Urban, renting, and small-space gardeners can create a whole garden utilizing grow bags. There are no limits to what you can grow in bags; lettuce, peppers, flowers, herbs, even potatoes! The material used to construct them keeps heat in when it’s cold and helps plants breathe when it’s hot. Plants can’t get root-bound because they’re surrounded by air, and there’s no closed bottom for the root to hit. You should see healthier and more productive plants. 

In a rainy garden or a particularly rainy season, it’s virtually impossible to water-log grow bags because of their porous felt lining. Positioning them on a greenhouse bench or pallet will allow airflow below and even more drainage. Remember, they’re also mobile, so if the rain is extreme, relocate them to a drier area temporarily. 

Bring the Indoors Out 

If you love spending time outdoors, creating a protected outdoor space will allow you to do so even when it’s raining. No need to be stuck indoors.

Were you inspired by the rain chains mentioned in #7 like I was? Hang singing bowls or bell versions from each corner of your outdoor oasis for a real treat. They’ll sing unique rain songs as the water flows down the chains. The sounds will vary based on the intensity of the rain and will add a soothing element. 

To elevate the space even further, add an outdoor fireplace and a waterproof couch. Add containers of flowers and grasses around the perimeter. Now there’s nothing you can do inside that you can’t do outside in your garden! 

Add Unique DIY Elements

If you’re a crafter and love upcycling old, unused items, this project is for you. Look for metal pots, watering cans, or plates at local thrift stores or in your garden shed. Tap into existing gutters and allow the collected water to flow into your design. 

Install your items on an angle to an outdoor building like a garage, greenhouse, or garden shed so that rain runs through one and into the next one lower down. Alternatively, create a stand and attach them to it in the same fashion. 

Place a flower or vegetable-filled container at the bottom of the lowest piece so it can take advantage of the rainwater that will trickle down. Add proper drainage to the container so it doesn’t become water-logged.