Landscape Spotlight: Parking Lot Rain Garden

 

Last week I was driving with a friend when I spotted some cattails in a parking lot. About 1 second later I realized that next to the cattails were pink and white hibiscus, and I realized that someone had installed a rain garden there. The business currently located in this spot is Shake Shack, a burger/shake joint (this one is in Alpharetta).

Crimson-eyed rosemallow (Hibiscus moscheutos)

I have seen a couple of other efforts in the area to create parking lot drainage areas, but this one is particularly colorful. I’m not sure that the cattails (Typha latifolia) were a good idea because they are filling up the area and even popping up into adjacent areas. Particularly colorful right now were pink and white hibiscus (Hibiscus moscheutos). I was surprised also to see what appears to be wild bergamot (Monarda fistulosa); I had no idea it could handle the occasional heavy moisture that a rain garden can have. A blooming goldenrod (Solidago) was there as well but it might not have been planted deliberately.

Monarda 

Crimson-eyed rosemallow, different color form

Between the rain garden and the sidewalk, switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) was growing. The cultivars of that species are certainly helping it to get used in designed landscapes. And there are plenty of non-native plants in the overall design, but you can’t help but do a little fist pump to see things like this.