About Rain Gardens
What is a Rain Garden?
The Municipality of Anchorage encourages you to install a Rain Garden on your property.
A Rain Garden is a depression in the landscape designed to catch and filter the water that runs off your roof, driveway, walkway, compacted lawn areas and other impervious surfaces.
Rain gardens contains plants, such as trees, shrubs, grasses, and flowers that help absorb and filter runoff.
How do Rain Gardens work?
Rain gardens act as buffers by filtering stormwater runoff before it reaches storm drains that eventually flow into streams, rivers, and lakes. They filter water that is slowly released back into the ground.
Because rain gardens take in water that would normally be directed through storm drains and then creeks, they reduce flooding, and improve the base flow in streams through groundwater recharge.
Ultimately, rain gardens improve water quality for salmon, wildlife, and recreational activities.
They help make our community a great place to live.
Who uses Rain Gardens?
Rain gardens are used throughout the United States. They are easy to construct, and can be built on small or large lots. Kids love rain gardens, and they have proven to be excellent outdoor classrooms that bring families and neighbors together.
The Municipality of Anchorage Watershed Management Services has adapted rain garden designs to the unique northern climate of Anchorage. With a little planning you can build a functioning rain garden.
Building a rain garden will be one of the best and easiest things you can do to protect and conserve Anchorage’s water resources. By installing rain gardens throughout Anchorage we will help prevent excessive flooding, reduce stormwater pollutants, and improve water quality for fish, wildlife, and recreational users.
Build your own Rain Garden
The Municipality of Anchorage has developed a Rain Garden Guidance Manual (PDF) to help you create a rain garden in your yard.
This manual is intended to guide you through any fears, reservations, or questions you may have about rain gardens. It is intended to provide encouragement, tools, and the answers you will need to make and sustain a rain garden.
So, grab a shovel, get some plants, and just do it! Most of all have fun!
Benefits of a Rain Garden
Besides reducing stormwater pollutants, preventing excessive flooding, and improving water quality for wildlife and recreational users, rain gardens:
1. Create habitat for wildlife such as birds, butterflies, and other beneficial insects.
2. Promote groundwater recharge, a process that occurs when rain or snow melt is absorbed into the ground and becomes groundwater.
3. Provide a creative form of landscaping different from the traditional lawn while providing treatment for pollutants associated with stormwater.
4. Require less maintenance than lawns because they do not need to be mowed, fertilized or watered once they are established.
5. Increase property value with attractive landscaping designs.
6. Reduce storm drain overflows when adopted on a community or neighborhood scale.
Suggested Plants
The following table lists well-suited plants for rain gardens. More detailed information can be found in the Rain Garden Manual.
You can also visit the Alaska Department of Natural Resources Division of Agriculture Directory of Alaska Native Plant Sources website to learn more about native plant materials.
Latin Name |
Common Name |
Bloom Time |
Bloom Color |
Height |
Spacing |
| Shrubs | |||||
| Aronia melanocarpa | Black Chokeberry | 3-5 feet | 4 feet | ||
| *Cornus sericea | Red-twig Dogwood | Early Summer | white | 5-8 feet | 5 feet |
| Cornus sericea ‘flaviramea’ | Yellow-twig Dogwood | Early Summer | white | 5-8 feet | 5 feet |
| *Viburnum edule | Highbush Cranberry | Spring | white | 4-8 feet | 3 feet |
| **Willow | Willow | Spring | varies | ||
| Potentilla | |||||
| Sweet Gale | |||||
| Perennials | |||||
| **Aquilegia | Columbine | All summer | varies | 6-36 inches | 12 inches |
| *Aruncus dioicus | Goat’s Beard | ||||
| **Aconitum delphinifolium | Monkshood | ||||
| *Dodecatheon pulchellum | Shooting Star | ||||
| *Geranium erianthum | Wild geranium | ||||
| Devil's Club | |||||
| *Athyrium felix-femina | Lady Fern | ||||
| *Coryadalis Semprivirous | |||||
| *Frittilaria camschatcensis | Chocolate Lily | ||||
| **Dodecatheon | Shooting Star | Spring | violet | 12-18 inches | 12 inches |
| *Dryopteris dilitata | Wood Fern | 30-36 inches | 24-30 inches | ||
| *Geranium erianthum | Cranesbill Geranium | Spring/Summer | purple/white | 12-24 inches | 12 inches |
| Hemerocallis ‘stella de oro’ | Stella de Oro Daylily | All Summer | yellow | 12 inches | 12 inches |
| *Iris setosa | Alaska Wild Iris | Early Summer | purple/white | 18-30 inches | 18 inches |
| Iris psuadacoris | Iris | Early Summer | yellow | 18-30 inches | 18 inches |
| Ligularia (x2) stenocephala/ przewalskii | The Rocket/ Ligularia | Late Summer | yellow/gold | 36-60 inches | 24 inches |
| *Matteuccia struthiopteris | Ostrich Fern | 36-48 inches | 24-30 inches | ||
| *Mertensia | Bluebells | Spring | blue/purple | 18-30 inches | 18 inches |
| *Myosotis alpestris | Forget-Me-Not | Spring/Summer | blue/pink | 4-12 inches | 12 inches |
| **Polemonium | Jacob’s Ladder | Summer | blue | 12-36 inches | 12 inches |
| Thalictrum | Meadow Rue | Summer | pink/white/purple | 36-48 inches | 18 inches |
| Trollius | Globeflower | Spring/Summer | yellow/orange | 24-36 inches | 12 inches |
| Filipendula | Meadowsweet | Late Summer | white/pink | 18-60 inches | 24-36 inches |
| Grasses and Sedges | |||||
| *Carex gmelini | Native Sedge | 36 inches | 30 inches | ||
| Miscanthus sinesis | Red Flame Grass | ||||
| *Deschampsia cespitosa | Tufted Hair Grass | ||||
| **Elymus mollis | Wild Rye | ||||
*Indicates Native Plant Species |
|||||
Supplies, Equipment, and Contractors
Visit the Alaska Native Plant Sources Directory and Business Addresses for suppliers in Alaska.
If you are a landscaper interested in rain gardens, visit the News
and Events page to find out when the next training events are available.
Or contact AnchorageRainGardens@muni.org.
Architects
Contractor |
Address |
Phone |
Email/Website |
| Corvus Design | 3017 Sheldon Jackson St. Anchorage AK 99508 | (907) 229-1647 | www.corvus-design.com |
Earthscape |
705 W. 13th Ave |
(907) 279-2688 |
|
Great Gardens |
19050 Citation Rd. |
(907) 952-9536 |
|
KPB Architects |
625 G Street |
(907) 274-7443 |
|
Land Design North |
441 W. 5th Ave. |
(907) 276-5885 |
|
Tryck, Nyman, Hayes Inc. |
911 W. 8th Ave. |
(907) 279-0543 |
Landscapers
Contractor |
Address |
Phone |
Email/Website |
Prospector Snow Plowing |
PO Box 3222 |
(907) 841-6123 |
|
Arctic Sun Gardening |
P.O. Box 91014 Anchorage, AK 99509 |
(907) 348-6153 |
|
Evergreen |
12580 Old Seward Hwy Anchorage, AK 99515 |
(907) 344-2588 |
|
Faltz Landscaping |
1401 Labar Street Anchorage, Alaska 99515 |
(907) 349-4382 |
|
Green Acres Landscaping |
8850 Runamuck Place |
(907) 522-5740 |
|
| Green Earth Landworks | 5440 B St. |
(907) 243-7892 | |
| In the Garden Nursery | 6030 West Tree Dr. |
(907) 346-4247 |
Cost Share Program
The Municipality of Anchorage is offering to reimburse homeowners that
install rain gardens for 50% of the cost of installation (up to
$750) based on availability of funds.
To apply for this “mini-grant” click
here (PDF),
fill out the form, and mail it in, or call 343-8084.