In this area of the country the majority around 90 of storms are one inch or less in size.
Roof to rain garden size.
Natural looking and kidney bean shapes are popular.
First identify the size of the roof driveway or other surface that will divert water into the rain garden.
Measure the distance from the house and the width of the drainage area and add it to your roof figure and find the soil type for your garden.
Multiply total drainage area by the soil factor.
If necessary you may want to amend the soil in your planting area.
For this exercise i ve used square feet as a measurement.
For the next steps in the planning process go to earth partnership for schools activities de signing a rain garden and rain garden species selection extensions.
Water is absorbed fastest in sandy soils and slowest in clay like soils.
Residential rain gardens are often sized to hold one inch of runoff in above ground storage from the contributing impervious surface.
The kind of soil you have will help determine the size of your rain garden.
Sizing your rain garden.
If you are placing your rain garden more than 30 feet from a downspout take the yard space into account when you figure the drainage area.
Multiply your size factor by the drainage area to get your total garden size.
For example 600 square feet of my 1 200 square foot roof.
Determine rain garden size for 100 runoff control 1.
Most rain gardens are from 100 to 300 square feet.