Rain Garden Kit

PLEASE NOTE: Pickup is June 5-7 in Maywood or June 6-7 in Lemont. Click the link in your order confirmation or main webpage to sign up for a time slot in either location--Maywood or Lemont.

This 15 plant kit with season spanning blooms provides an easy way to add wildlife habitat and beauty to your existing or new sunny wet garden. 

The plants in this kit will supply nectar and pollen for native bees and other important pollinators and like full sun, and wet to medium-wet soil. The kit can be planted in an area of 10-15 sq. ft. You can plant the kit at the base of a downspout if it extends away from the house a bit, or in a low spot in your yard where rainwater collects. It will likely need supplemental watering in times of little rain. There are many tutorials on installing a rain garden. Here is one example, but you can start much smaller!

All plants are plug size. Plugs are a bit smaller than pint-sized plants, but develop a strong root system and are more affordable. 

Kit contains 3 plants of each species:

• Rose (Swamp) Milkweed: Pink-flowering milkweed plants bloom midsummer and provide food for Monarch butterfly caterpillars and nectar for adult Monarchs, for bees and other pollinators. 
• Monkey Flower has an interesting midsummer bloom that looks like its common name and is the host to several butterfly species (not available separately).
• Blue Flag Iris provides early season nectar for bees and butterflies and its clumps of long flat leaves spread slowly.
• Cardinal Flower attracts hummingbirds and is striking in any garden. It is one of only a handful of red native flowers and blooms in late summer
• Riddell’s Goldenrod attracts butterflies, bees and many other insects with bright yellow flowers in fall. Goldenrods are important nectar plants for migrating Monarch butterflies (not available separately).

Add some grasses and sedges

We recommend planting kits interspersed with grasses and/or sedges to create a native plant community.  In natural settings native flowering plants grow intermingled with grasses which creates habitat for wildlife. The grasses provide food and cover for birds, insects and other small animals. This approach also helps control weeds.

Recommended Grasses and Sedges:

 Gray's Sedge, Hop Sedge, Short's Sedge, Tufted Hair Grass

Kit Details

• Kit costs $45. You save $7.50 over the cost of purchasing plants individually.
• Light: Full to mostly sun
• Soil: Wet to Medium-Wet
• Height: Plants range from 2-4 feet
• Blooms:  May-October

Plant Care Tips: Transplants need care for the first growing season.

• Plant ASAP in a spot that gets full sun (6+ hours) or at least 4 hours direct sun. 
• Water them every day, or as needed depending on precipitation and other weather conditions for the first month. 
• They might need temporary shade.
• Consider protection from rabbits in the first season.
• Mulch and regular weeding are also required until plants fill in.

Photo credit: Illinois Wildflowers, Wikimedia