How to capture rain in your garden this fall and beyond

Welcome to mid-October! We just had our first rainy stretch in a while. Another may be approaching. Home gardeners may be wondering how to capture all the rainwater that meteorologists are projecting El Niño will deliver us over the coming months.

I know I have been.

Your best course of action right now, Tahereh Sheerazie said, is simple: Just watch.

Watch what the rain does in your garden. On rainy days, take photographs of where the rain pools, and make notations to show where it flows. Once you do that throughout a rainy season, then you will be prepared to take the next sizable step of designing swales to keep rainwater in your gardens.

“When it’s really, really raining, that’s the year you don’t want to do anything,” Sheerazie said. “You just want to let it rain, see where the erosion is happening and create a plan.”

Sheerazie, lead gardener at Pasadena’s Arlington Garden, has studied permaculture and designed and constructed a number of swales at the garden and elsewhere. She has learned the importance of patience.

“Study it really well this year,” she said. “Sure, you’ll get a lot of water this year, and you’ll think, ‘I missed it, and it’s all gone.’ No. Next year, maybe the next three years, nothing’s gonna come your way. But in those dry seasons, you will have built the infrastructure to capture the next big rain you’re gonna get. Because guess what? You are gonna get it. This business of feast and famine isn’t over.”

That framework includes rain barrels but often takes the form of swales, slope-sided channels that soak up rainwater and manage runoff and erosion. While they can form naturally, in the home garden they are typically constructed by gardeners. When the swales are filled with water-hungry plants, they are sometimes referred to as bioswales. Some plants we highlighted earlier this month could thrive in that setting.

Sheerazie mentioned that swales “don’t have to be just one thing.” They can take many different forms and sizes. In a standard-sized, relatively flat yard, a few small swales, scattered around, can meaningfully slow down water. Arlington Garden’s three acres feature more than a handful of swales to control the flow of water, as the garden’s eastern edge is 30 feet lower than its western.

At home, Sheerazie recommends digging at least a foot deep and at least a few feet wide. The site(s) should be where you’ve noticed water pooling in years and rains past.

More broadly, the goal is to understand the short- and long-term value of preserving the water that the earth supplies us. Sheerazie pointed out the fire suppression benefits of soaked soil.

“If each one of us really thinks about how much water is landing on our properties, and what we are doing with it, I think we will learn to maximize what we have,” Sheerazie said. “Some of this stored rainwater is also hydrating your soil, and there’s less of a chance of it going up in smoke.”

October is the month of swale building, our little shoulder season between the summer and rain.

Just last weekend, Sheerazie supervised a group of Boy Scouts digging a 2-foot-deep swale as part of an Eagle Scout Service Project at Arlington Garden. Polytechnic School student Ryan Kim is planning to study sustainability in college, and he worked with Sheerazie for a year to select this scout project and prepare for construction.

Also, earlier this week, Arlington Garden staffers celebrated 18 years since the construction of a parkway swale along Arlington Drive that helps prevent runoff into the street.

So, maybe you can make October your swale-building time too — October 2027, that is.

Other garden bits

Fall plant sales abound

Now is the perfect time to procure new plants, as gardens and nurseries across Southern California are hosting plant sales over the coming weeks. The Theodore Payne Foundation’s sale at its Sun Valley headquarters runs from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Oct. 27 to Nov. 7. The Huntington’s sale is more limited: From 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Oct. 23-25. Access to the Huntington requires buying garden admission; Theodore Payne’s is free.

Other sales include the Ventura County Master Gardeners’ California Native Plant Sale on Saturday, and on the big day of Oct. 24 are the Mojave Desert Land Trust’s Annual Native Plant Sale, California Native Plant Society Orange County Chapter’s Membership Day and Plant Sale and the South Coast Chapter of California Native Plant Society’s Fall Plant Sale at Madrona Marsh.

Freaky Flora at the Arboretum

The Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden in Arcadia has introduced a fun, themed element to its grounds this month. Scarecrows tucked along garden paths alert visitors to 20 plants, each of which has a strange or spooky story. Each scarecrow has signage showing the whole route.

According to organizers, subjects covered include fig tree stranglers, various symbols of the underworld and evil-spirit resisters like fennel. Access is included with standard garden admission, which costs $18 for adults, $14 for seniors or students and $8 for children ages 3 to 12. For more information, visit this link.

Upcoming events

Upcoming events (Oct. 15-31)

Oct. 17

Student Community Service Day at Descanso Gardens, 9 to 11 a.m. in La Cañada Flintridge. Students ages 12 to 15 are invited to sign up to volunteer at the gardens and earn service hours. Adult chaperones must be present. To RSVP, email volunteer@descansogardens.org. descansogardens.org

Nature Journaling: Looking at Oak Leaves at the Theodore Payne Foundation, 10 a.m. to noon in Sun Valley. Maryanne Pittman, the foundation’s director of public programs, will lead an exercise in drawing oaks, focusing on some of the region’s endemic oaks that stand tall at the foundation’s headquarters. Paper and pencils are provided, but participants are asked to bring their own journal or sketchbook and personal drawing materials. Tickets are $33. theodorepayne.org

Oct. 18

Herb Walk: Medicinal Plants of California at the California Botanic Garden, 9 to 11 a.m. in Claremont. Take a two-hour walk through the garden with herbalist William Broen, who will give a talk focusing on medicinal and edible plants native to California. Subjects will include plant survival strategies and modern and traditional usages. Tickets are $30, or $25 for members. calbg.org

Rain Gardens Biking Tour, 9 to 11 a.m. in San Gabriel and Alhambra. ActiveSGV will lead a morning bike tour of five residential rain-capture gardens that were completed this spring. Expert horticulturists will talk to the group about garden design and water-saving techniques. Access is free, but attendees need to bring their own bikes for the nine-mile flat ride. activesgv.org

Oct. 24

Creative Workshop: Our Colorful World of Natural Native Dyes at the Huntington, 1 to 3 p.m. in San Marino. Seasoned natural dyer and certified naturalist Erin Berkowitz will teach a workshop focused on using native plants for dye. Participants will craft their own botanically dyed table runners. Tickets are $88, or $80 for members, and include garden admission. huntington.org

Introduction to California Orchids at the California Botanic Garden, 1 to 4 p.m. in Claremont. Allison Autry, an orchid researcher and PhD candidate in the garden’s botany program, will lead a class covering the 30-plus orchid species native to California. Among the planned activities: orchid dissection. Tickets are $55, or $45 for members. calbg.org

Ohara L.A. Ikebana Exhibit at the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in Arcadia. Members of the L.A. chapter of the ikebana organization Ohara will display their floral arrangements that range in style. Ikebana is the ancient Japanese art of floral arrangement. Access is included in admission to the garden, which costs $18 for adults, $14 for seniors or students, and $8 for children ages 3 to 12. The exhibit will also be available for viewing on Oct. 25. arboretum.org

Oct. 29

Botany Brown Bag with Rachel Shahan at the Mathias Botanical Garden, noon to 1 p.m. in Westwood. At the campus garden’s La Kretz Garden Pavilion, UCLA’s Shahan will discuss her work applying single-cell genomics and time-lapse microscopy to the roots of one plant. RSVPs are not required and admission is free, but bring your own lunch. botgard.ucla.edu

Oct. 31

Outdoor Volunteer Day at Abalone Cove Reserve, 9:15 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. in Rancho Palos Verdes. On Halloween morning, the Palos Verdes Peninsula Land Conservancy will host a volunteer day in the coastal reserve. Volunteers will help restore wildlife habitat. Community service hours are available for students. pvplc.org

What we’re reading

The Los Angeles Field Recording Club’s next meetup is this weekend. Writer Michelle Madden took a look at how the group came together and the varied recordings they make. It’s a fun read in The Times.

In The Wild newsletter, L.A. Times outdoors reporter Jaclyn Cosgrove reported on the history and future of Eaton Canyon and its beloved nature center.

Times staff writer Alex Wigglesworth reported on the Interior Department’s decision to block 10 Joshua Tree National Park agreements worth nearly $1.2 million. The deals would have hired at least 16 people to restore burned areas, plant native seeds and perform other tasks.