You may have noticed a recent mailing from the city outlining the special incentives now available for residents of our neighbourhood for storm water management projects.
You may have also noticed, on your walk down Shanley street to Tim Horton’s or King Edward School, that my front yard at 65 Shanley street looks very different than it did last year!
Well, even though I didn’t win the prize draw last fall, I still consider myself a big winner, as I received a substantial financial incentive payment through Reep Green Solutions, which allowed me to complete and even expand my eco-friendly remodel plan for my front yard.
The big feature (the thing that looks like a pond) is a rain garden, which captures all the runoff from half of my main roof and all of my porch roof. I also have the beautiful flagstone pavers, which allow the snow and ice to melt off much faster than regular pavement. Two rain barrels store water for watering the gilding lilies-or at least a few day lilies, plus a spectacular array of ornamental plants and grasses, almost all of which are native perennials, which also support wildlife.
Becca Robinson, the current REEP rain coach, provided some informal consultation and advice during the concept stages. The project was designed and executed by Crystal and Liam at Wildlife gardening (wildlifegardening.ca), who worked with me to create a design that reflects my aesthetic vision and ecological goals, and is also carefully engineered to effectively collect storm water.
The best part is not just being able to enjoy watching everything grow from my front porch–the best part is NO water in my basement, even after our multiple 25 mm rain days this spring.
Your Midtown KW Neighbourhood 
Your yard looks great. Juanita and I had a RAIN visit as well. They gave us great advice.
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What was your total cost? From start to finish? Including all consultation fees?
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Hi,
The total project cost was around $4650, but that included the flagstone walkway, re-engineering the whole yard to minimize water into the basement, the edging, and all the landscaping around the side of the house and the boulevard. I can’t remember if that included design fees. It did include all the plants, many of which were grown by Wildlife Gardening. You would have to check with Crystal and Liam about the cost for the rain garden itself. I think it was in the range of $1500, about what the incentive offers.
Dawn
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