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Meadow Home Rain Gardens   l   Morrisville, Vermont

With tranquil views of mountains and meadows, this stunning property integrates the owners’ fondness of Prairie-style architecture with their love of Japanese gardens. The result is a truly seamless composition of house, landscape and views.  A palette of textures, patterns, colors and scales borrowed from the surrounding forest and meadow provides a feeling of intimacy with nature both indoors and out.

Creative techniques are used to catch stormwater runoff. A rill of smooth, black beach pebbles below the roof’s dripline and rain gardens featuring native ferns and groundcover collected from the property’s forest provide both function and beauty. These rain collection features manage large volumes of rainwater that accumulate in a significant roof valley during heavy storms. The rain gardens gracefully perform the function of carrying excess water away via subsurface drains, while blending with the adjacent mature bonsai garden. Drifts of ferns, wet-tolerant shrubs and river rock emulate the hydrology and aesthetic value of a woodland brook, and overlap with the existing patio and garden space.

Collaboration with Architect Sarah Susanka