Storm Water at Fredley

One of the issues more and more jurisdictions are dealing with is storm water. Island County has just added a fee for each property owner for addressing storm water issues. Langley did the same about a year ago. With increased building, paving and compaction, plus more and more clearing of trees and understory, the runoff is often severe. When we planned our home, storm water was considered in the initial design of our home. All three buildings have their roof water diverted to a stream, which flows into a pond, and then into a man-made wetland (rain garden).

Once the water enters the wetland it has time to infiltrate slowly into the ground. This photo is of our pond and wetland today, after hours and hours of heavy rain. I worked with dbBrad on this storm water system as well as two other systems in Greenbank available on his blog.

Bellingham Rental

This small city garden was all lawn with overgrown junipers and other outdated, much too large conifers planted very close to the home's foundation. Accordingly, few existing plants could be saved. One of the few plants of value was a very old apple tree. The back garden was transformed into a quiet, relaxing outdoor room. The side garden had French doors added off the dining area for ease of access to the south side of the house. A small deck was built to extend the dining area into the garden for use on warm and sunny days.

Water in the Garden

In the construction of our home we incorporated a stream, pond and wetland to catch the roof and manage the site water. The project was so successful, bringing much listening and viewing pleasure, we wanted more. In response, the stream was extended another sixty feet.

Not yet complete, but looking quite lovely in our first snow of the season, here are a few shots of the newly installed stream. At the time of these photographs the stream was only three days old.

Construction expertise and assistance was provided by dbBrad

Fran & Ed's garden

Our pond (storm water retention) was planned from the first days of lot clearing and site development. Garden Designer Fran Abel and Designer/Builder Brad Hankins (dbbrad) wanted to make aesthetic and practical use of the site's storm water and the site's 19 foot drop. Accordingly, from the hole to the liner to the pond was a progressive process running parallel to building our home. The roof water from the three buildings on the site are diverted into a small upper pond; into a stream; then into the lower pond ; and then into an overflow wetland. See our fredley blog for more information about the building of our home.

Abel-Anderson Garden

Our home,called Fredley, was designed to flow into the garden so there is as little distinction between inside and out as possible. From vegetables to water, flowers to sitting, this garden is inviting and provides an open invitation to stay and visit.

Abel-Anderson Garden

Garden Art

Peter and Marie's Garden

Design & Consultation

Working with native plantings and highlighting Peter and Marie's spectacular view of Saratoga Passage were key elements of this landscape design.