Background

The backyard of the Burnham residence is located downslope from three large neighboring properties with yards that consisted of little more than turf grass.

 

Goals/Concerns

Due to the large volume of stormwater arriving at the Burnham’s back stoop even during small rain events, a continuously running sump pump and standing water in the basement, the Burnham’s wanted to solve their drainage problem with a functional and aesthetic approach. The greatest design constraints on the site were the dense clay soils as well as the backyard being sloped toward the house with the rest of the property being extremely flat. It was decided that in order to properly rid the Burnham residence of their water issues a goal of capturing a 100 yr rainfall event (5.9 inches in 24hrs) would be set.

 

Solutions

To reduce the amount of clay soils removed, a 3 tiered rain garden design was used to step the rain gardens into their sloping backyard reducing overall site grading. The top 2 tiers took the majority of the neighboring properties runoff while lowest of the 3 rain gardens captured runoff from Burnham’s backyard. The lowest tier of the rain also contained an overflow pipe that directed water to the front yard and eventually using the city street as an outlet.

 

The planting plan called for all native perennial species that would be able to take the wet and dry extremes of the rain garden. A river birch (Betula nigra) several Red Osier Dogwoods were used for increased habitat potential and to screen the Burnham backyard from their neighbors.