Planting the rain garden is the fun part! A number of planting designs and lists of suggested plants are included at the end of this publication. Use these for ideas, but don’t be afraid to be creative – there’s no single best way to plant a rain garden. Anyone who has ever done any gardening will have no problem planting a rain garden, but a few basic reminders are listed below.

Planting the rain garden

• Select plants that have a well established root system. Usually one or two-year-old plants will have root systems that are beginning to circle or get matted. (Note: use only nursery-propagated plants; do not collect plants from the wild).
• Make sure to have at least a rough plan for which plants will be planted where. Lay out the plants as planned one foot apart in a grid pattern, keeping them in containers if possible until they are actually planted to prevent drying out before they get in the ground.
• Dig each hole twice as wide as the plant plug and deep enough to keep the crown of the young plant level with the existing grade (just as it was growing in the cell pack or container). Make sure the crown is level and then fill the hole and firmly tamp around the roots to avoid air pockets.
• Apply double-shredded mulch evenly over the bed approximately two inches thick, but avoid burying the crowns of the new transplants. Mulching is usually not necessary after the second growing season unless the “mulched look” is desired.
• Stick plant labels next to each individual grouping. This will help identify the young native plants from non-desirable species (weeds) as you weed the garden.
• As a general rule plants need one inch of water per week. Water immediately after planting and continue to water twice a week (unless rain does the job) until the plugs are established. You should not have to water your rain garden once the plants are established. Plugs can be planted anytime during the growing season as long as they get adequate water.

Maintaining the rain garden

Weeding will be needed the first couple of years. Remove by hand only those plants you are certain are weeds. Try to get out all the roots of the weedy plants. Weeds may not be a problem in the second season, depending on the variety and tenacity of weeds present. In the third year and beyond, the native grasses, sedges, rushes, and wildflowers will begin to mature and will out-compete the weeds. Weeding isolated patches might still be needed on occasion.

After each growing season, the stems and seedheads can be left for winter interest, wildlife cover and bird food. Once spring arrives and new growth is 4-6-inches tall, cut all tattered plants back. If the growth is really thick, hand-cut the largest plants and then use a string trimmer to mow the planting back to a height of six to eight inches. Dead plant material can also be removed with a string trimmer or weed whacker (scythe) and composted or dis- posed of as appropriate.

The best way to knock back weeds and stimulate native plant growth is to burn off the dead plant material in the rain garden. However, burning is banned in most municipalities. Another option is to mow the dead plant material. If the mowing deck of your lawn mower can be raised to a height of six inches or so, go ahead and simply mow your rain garden. Then, rake up and compost or properly dispose of the dead plant material.

If the mower deck won’t raise that high, use a string trimmer or weed-eater to cut the stems at a height of 6-8 inches. On thicker stems, such as cup plant, goldenrods and some asters, a string trimmer may not be strong enough. For these, use hand clippers or pruning shears to cut the individual stems.

While rain gardens are a highly functional way to help protect water quality, they are also gardens and should be an attractive part of your yard and neighborhood. Think of the rain garden in the context of your home’s overall landscape design. Here are a few tips:

1. When choosing native plants for the garden, it is important to consider the height of each plant, bloom time and color, and its overall texture. Use plants that bloom at different times to create a long flowering season. Mix heights, shapes, and textures to give the garden depth and dimension. This will keep the rain garden looking interesting even when few wildflowers are in bloom.
2. When laying plants out, randomly clump individual species in groups of 3 to 7 plants to provide a bolder statement of color. Make sure to repeat these individual groupings to create repetition and cohesion in a planting. This will provide a more traditional formal look to the planting.
3. Try incorporating a diverse mixture of sedges, rushes, and grasses with your flowering species (forbs). This creates necessary root competition that will allow plants to follow their normal growth patterns and not outgrow or out-compete other species. In natural areas, a diversity of plant types not only adds beauty but also create a thick underground root matrix that keeps the entire plant community in balance. In fact, 80% of the plant mass in native prairie communities is underground. Once the rain garden has matured and your sedges, rushes and grasses have established a deep, thick root system, there will be less change in species location from year to year, and weeds will naturally decline.
4. Finally, consider enhancing the rain garden by using local or existing stone, ornamental fences, trails, garden benches, or additional wildflower plantings. This will help give the new garden an intentional and cohesive look and provide a feeling of neatness that the neighbors will appreciate.

The surface area of the rain garden can be almost any size, but time and cost will always be important considerations in sizing decisions. Any reasonably sized rain garden will provide some storm water runoff control. A typical residential rain garden ranges from 100 to 300 square feet. Rain gardens can be smaller than 100 square feet, but very small gardens have little plant variety. If a rain garden is larger than 300 square feet it takes a lot more time to dig, is more difficult to make level, and could be hard on your budget.

The size of the rain garden will depend on:

• how deep the garden will be,
• what type of soils the garden will be planted in, and
• how much roof and/or lawn will drain to the garden

How Deep Should the Rain Garden Be?

A typical rain garden is between four and eight inches deep. A rain garden more than eight inches deep might pond water too long, look like a hole in the ground, and present a tripping hazard for somebody stepping into it. A rain garden much less than four inches deep will need an excessive amount of surface area to provide enough water storage to infiltrate the larger storms.

No matter what the depth of the rain garden, the goal is to keep the garden level. Digging a very shallow rain garden on a steep lawn will require bringing in extra topsoil to bring the downslope part of the garden up to the same height as the up-slope part of the garden. As the slope gets steeper, it is easi- er to dig the rain garden a little deeper to make it level.

The slope of the lawn should determine the depth of the rain garden. Find the slope of your lawn by following these steps.

1. Pound one stake in at the uphill end of your rain garden site and pound the other stake in at the downhill end. The stakes should be about 15 feet apart.
2. Tie a string to the bottom of the uphill stake and run the string to the downhill stake.
3. Using a string level or the carpenter’s level, make the string horizontal and tie the string to the downhill stake at that height.
4. Measure the width (in inches) between the two stakes.
5. Now measure the height (in inches) on the downhill stake between the ground and string.
6. Divide the height by the width and multiply the result by 100 to find the lawn’s percent slope. If the slope is more than 12%, it’s best to find another site or talk to a professional landscaper.

Using the slope of the lawn, select the depth of the rain garden from the following options:

• If the slope is less than 4%, it is easiest to build a 3 to 5-inch deep rain garden.
• If the slope is between 5 and 7%, it is easiest to build one 6 to 7 inches deep.
• If the slope is between 8 and 12%, it is easiest to build one about 8 inches deep.

EXAMPLE: Todd measures the length of the string between the stakes; it is 180 inches long. The height is 9 inches. He divides the height by the width to find his lawn’s percent slope. With a 5% slope, Todd should build a 6 inch deep rain garden.

Home rain gardens can be in one of two places – near the house to catch only roof runoff or farther out on the lawn to collect water from the lawn and roof.

To help decide where to put a rain garden, consider these points:

• The rain garden should be at least 10 feet from the house so infiltrating water doesn’t seep into the foundation.
• Do not place the rain garden directly over a septic system.
• It may be tempting to put the rain garden in a part of the yard where water already ponds. Don’t! The goal of a rain garden is to encourage infiltration, and your yard’s wet patches show where infiltration is slow.
• It is better to build the rain garden in full or partial sun, not directly under a big tree.
• Putting the rain garden in a flatter part of the yard will make digging much easier. For example, a rain garden 10 feet wide on a 10% slope must be 12 inches deep to be level, unless you import topsoil or use cut and fill.

Consider your overall landscape

When considering placement of your rain garden, design with the end in mind. Carefully consider how the rain garden can be integrated into existing and future landscaping. Also, pay attention to views from inside the house as well as those throughout the landscape. Determine how far or how close you want your rain garden to outdoor gathering spaces or other play areas. Why not locate it near a patio where you can take advantage of the colors and fragrances for hours on end!

Homeowners in many parts of the country are catching on to rain gardens – land-scaped areas planted to wild flowers and other native vegetation that soak up rain water, mainly from the roof of a house or other building. The rain garden fills with a few inches of water after a storm and the water slowly filters into the ground rather than running off to a storm drain. Compared to a conventional patch of lawn, a rain garden allows about 30% more water to soak into the ground.

Why are rain gardens important? As cities and suburbs grow and replace forests and agricultural land, increased stormwater runoff from impervious surfaces becomes a problem. Stormwater runoff from developed areas increases flooding; carries pollutants from streets, parking lots and even lawns into local streams and lakes; and leads to costly municipal improvements in stormwater treatment structures.

By reducing stormwater runoff, rain gardens can be a valuable part of changing these trends. While an individual rain garden may seem like a small thing, collectively they produce substantial neighborhood and community environmental benefits. Rain gardens work for us in several ways:

1. Increasing the amount of water that filters into the ground, which recharges local and regional aquifers;
2. Helping protect communities from flooding and drainage problems;
3. Helping protect streams and lakes from pollutants carried by urban stormwater – lawn fertilizers and pesticides, oil and other fluids that leak from cars, and numerous harmful substances that wash off roofs and paved areas;
4. Enhancing the beauty of yards and neighborhoods;
5. Providing valuable habitat for birds, butterflies and many beneficial insects

Frequently asked questions

• Does a rain garden form a pond? No. The rain water will soak in so the rain garden is dry between rainfalls. (Note: some rain gardens can be designed to include a permanent pond, but that type of rain garden is not addressed in this publication).
• Are they a breeding ground for mosquitoes? No. Mosquitoes need 7 to 12 days to lay and hatch eggs, and standing water in the rain garden will last for a few hours after most storms. Mosquitoes are more likely to lay eggs in bird baths, storm sewers, and lawns than in a sunny rain garden. Also rain gardens attract dragonflies, which eat mosquitoes!
• Do they require a lot of maintenance? Rain gardens can be maintained with little effort after the plants are established. Some weeding and watering will be needed in the first two years, and perhaps some thinning in later years as the plants mature.
• Is a rain garden expensive? It doesn’t have to be. A family and a few friends can provide the labor. The main cost will be purchasing the plants, and even this cost can be minimized by using some native plants that might already exist in the yard or in a neighbor’s yard.

Student Hurt in Discovery Middle School Shooting – A ninth grade student was shot in the head by a fellow ninth grade student at the Discovery Middle School at Madison, AL at around 1:46pm. A news conference will be held by the city leaders and the police at 4:30pm to tackle the details of the Discovery Middle School shooting. Check out the WHNT NEWS for the live coverage of the conference that will be held at the Madison Fire Station 2, just across the street from Discovery Middle School.

The victim of the Discovery Middle School shooting was immediately rushed to Huntsville Hospital while the shooter is currently in custody. The Discovery Middle school shooting exactly took place at the school’s ninth grade hallway.

Dr. Dee Fowler, Madison’s Superintendent of Education, showed his gratitude to the police and the other concerned individuals who immediately responded to the Discovery Middle School shooting. Fowler also said that their major concern as of the moment is the safety of the victim and the rest of the Discovery Middle School students who were affected by the incident.

Source: Student Hurt in Discovery Middle School Shooting | Daily World Buzz

Below are specific instructions for proper operation of your new Zhu Zhu Pet.

Pet Codes
The pet is equipped with a proprietary code reader. This reader allows the pet to react to the different locations inside the Zhu Zhu Pets™ environments. The Zhu Zhu Pets™ Fun House and add on sets are sold separately. The code reader has no function outside of the play sets.

Unpacking your pet
Remove all contents from package and discard any rubber bands, wire ties or other packaging materials that are not part of the product.

Preparing your pet for operation
The pet is ready to go as soon as it is removed from the package. Activation Buttons The pet has two activation buttons and one sensor button. The button on its head and one on its back activate the play. The button on its nose acts as a bump sensor when in Explore Mode and as a Try-Me button when in Sleep Mode. The nose button has no function in Talk Mode.

To turn off the wheel drive push either the head or back button.

Operating Modes
The pet has three Modes of operation, Talk Mode, Explore Mode and Sleep Mode.

1. Talk Mode; this is the nurturing, loving mode, when you want to give your pet special attention without having it try to scurry away from you. Press the Head Button to make the pet coo, chirp, and make a variety of cute sounds. It will continue to make new sounds every few seconds or every time you push the Head button. After about one minute the pet will automatically go to sleep.
2. Explore Mode; this is where you get to watch the pet go out and explore the world! Press the Back Button to engage the motor, then set the pet down and let it go. In Explore Mode the pet will entertain you with crazy fun sounds and wacky movements. It will back up when it bumps its nose. Press the Back Button again while in Explore mode and the pet will go to sleep. If left alone in explore mode the pet will automatically 1 go to sleep after about four minutes.
3. Sleep Mode: the pet will sleep to conserve energy and save the batteries when not in use. You can wake it up by pressing the Head or Back button. Sleep Mode also doubles as a Try-Me Mode for the pet.

In Sleep mode
The nose button is active and will cause the pet to make simple sounds each time the button is pressed. It will then go back to sleep.

For more information on the Zhu Zhu Pets™ and pet play sets and accessories please go to; www.zhuzhupets.com

Cepia LLC is the manufacturer behind the much hyped Zhu Zhu Pets range of children’ toys. From their beginnings in 2002, the company has really focused their efforts on producing affordable, fun toys that push the boundaries of technological advancement. The company has a history of successful toys, including Glo-e, Hydro Max and Sky Raptors. However, it is without doubt that the latest range of Zhu Zhu Pets toys (often misspelled Zoo Zoo Pets toys and even Zu Zhu Pets toys) is currently catapulting the company to a whole new level of success. The lineup at the moment only includes hamster pet toys, but if the surge in demand is any indication, it shouldn’t be long before we see Cepia releasing other pet toys.

With five hamsters now available, each with distinctively different colors and contrasting unique personalities, each of them appeals to different children in different ways and either ends up being a well used and great fun little furry pet toy or just another animal toy that quickly becomes boring. If you’re looking to pick the best choice for your child so that they really can get the most out of these hamsters, then by understanding how each reacts and the ‘type’ of hamster they are, will allow you to make a great choice for your kid.

Mr Squiggles is the bestselling hamster of the lot and has pretty much remained in that position since the launch of Zhu Zhu toys. If your child wants a fast and furious little critter, then Mr Squiggles may be the perfect choice. Light brown in color, he perhaps resemble a real hamster the most out of all five. Mr Squiggles loves to scurry and scoot at full speed and has some hysterical sounds when he bumps into anything in his way. Pipsqueak is more or less the second most popular choice among kids but frequently topples Mr Squiggles for pole position periodically. Pipsqueak is a great soft yellow color that girls especially love.

Pipsqueaks, like Mr Squiggles also loves to go fast in explore mode, but settle her down and put her into affection mode and your kids will spend hours heaping care and attention on her.

Num Nums is the true lady of the lot and perhaps the most fussy of all the hamster pack. She loves to explore around and fuss over everything, making all of the sounds and noises that she makes so well. Don’t let this fool you though, in explore mode she is certainly able to scoot around as good as the next hamster toy. Num Nums has a passion for food and loves to spend time in the Funhouse hamster kitchen, kids love to watch and listen to all of the sounds she makes in there.

Chunk the surfer dude is what everyone knows this furry Zhu Zhu toy as. Available in snow white, this color is loved by girls and those boys that don’t intend to roll him in the dirt. Chunk is super laid back and not disturbed at all by the fast paced antics of the other crazy hamsters around him. Give Chunk an activity, especially the surfboard and this little furry pet toy really shines. On his board, he makes all sorts of great surfing noises and moves and both girls and boys love it. Girls also love the way they can slow Chunk down with affection mode and give him some attention after the surf has died down.

Patches is the new hamster on the block, but is not currently available to purchase separately. The only way that you can buy Zhu Zhu Patches, is by buying an included bundle. Bundles are changing all of the time, but a Patches Funhouse bundle and a Patches House Starter set bundle are popular. So, if you are looking for a less common hamster for your kid and want to buy some of the popular hamster accessories at the same time, then the Patches flower loving hamster package may be the way to go.

I don’t claim to be an avid Apple fan, although I have owned numerous iPods and currently use an iPhone which I’ve been very impressed by. However, like many people, my curiosity and liking of gadgetry tech drew me towards the events that were to be announced yesterday night by Apple’s CEO, Steve Jobs.

In case you haven’t already heard (most have!), Apple has announced the release of a new product, the iPad. That said, there’s still a lot of people wondering what it does exactly.

What is it?

Apple says…Our most advanced technology in a magical and revolutionary device at an unbelievable price.

On first impressions you could mistake the Apple iPad for an over-sized iPhone.  Apple is aiming to gain market share from the likes of netbooks (those underpowered mini laptops) and Ebook readers already on the market such as Amazon’s Kindle.

What does it do?

The iPad attempts to do everything that your laptop can, while offering almost everything your smartphone can do as well (apart from make calls, I think!). You’ll be able to do your work on it, with the release of an iPad version of iWorks (Apple’s version of MS Office), access iTunes, iPhone apps, play music, upload your photos, watch video, browse the web and access your email.

iBookstore

Possibly one of the biggest uses for the Apple iPad is to be able to read stuff much easier electronically through the iBooks app. Books, newspapers you name it. For the avid reader that doesn’t want to resort to the small screen of their iPhone and wants the convenience of having a range of materials on tap, the iPad seems like a good idea. As you can imagine the crippled print industry has been getting more than excited about this.

The iBook store already has major contracts with some of the large book publishers such as Penguin and Harper Collins. Its software is also using the open source book software, so once you pay for them you can read them on other pieces of hardware (like Amazon’s Kindle) too.

Who will use it?
Anyone, but existing Apple customers will know best. Apple is claiming that millions will already be familiar with the iPad having never previously owned one, through the familiarity they already have with using other Apple products such as the iPhone, iPod Touch and iMac. I for one don’t doubt their claim.

The Techy Bit?

• Screen 9.7 inches
• Memory: 16/32/64 GB
• Multi-touch screen technology
• 1.5 ibs and 0.5 inches thin
• 10 hours battery life
• Wifi
• 3G
• Dock Connector port

There’s a lot of criticism about Apple’s new gadget already. Perhaps what a lot of people forget is that Apple has been a follower into markets many times before. They watch, look at new ways that media can be absorbed, from the innovators and then go ahead and create awesomely user-friendly products that take those markets by storm. Apple is one of the few companies that really get away without following the normal product development rules, the brand, the usability and the tech just work. Examples include: nowhere to the number one music seller (online at least!) with the iPod; and from nowhere to the number one smart phone (iPhone).

Will we see Apple come from nowhere to be the number one book seller? Or will it just be the netbook market that it really impacts? Maybe it’ll just flop altogether!

I, like a lot of people, won’t be investing just yet, but I have no doubt that as it’s refined and the market grows they’ll get to me too!

What’s this all got to do with digital marketing?

We all know that the web has been growing and expanding, impacting industry by industry. Some are yet to be majorly affected, others like retail and travel have been massively impacted. The shift from brands existing in channels to now living in networks has made brands change the way that they market themselves forever. More recently we have seen how the web is going to create the new age for the music industry, with the introduction of iTunes and Spotify. Could it now be the publishers turn? The cause of so much debate recently (Murdoch Vs Google).  Will we see more subscription-based models emerging, finding a middle ground between paid for and free content, kick started by new technologies such as the iPad and the iBookstore as the music industry was by the iPod and iTunes.

Read more about Digital Marketing Expertise from iCrossing.