Step 2: Building the Rain Garden

Digging the Rain Garden

BEFORE you start digging, call Digger’s Hotline at 1-800-242-8511

While digging the rain garden to the correct depth, heap the soil around the edge where the berm will be. (The berm is a low “wall” around three sides of the rain garden that holds the water in during a storm.)

If the lawn is almost flat, you will be digging at the same depth throughout the rain garden and using the soil for the berm. If the lawn is steeper, the high end of the rain garden will need to be dug out noticeably more than the low end, and some of the soil from the upper end can be used in the lower end to make the rain garden level. Continue digging and filling one section at a time across the length of your rain garden until it is as level as possible.