Pop-up emitter for a rock garden?

[Marck]

Is the rain garden/rock garden going to be downslope from the house to fully capture the runoff from the roof?

In either case, a rain garden would have an overflow for the major runoff from rare, heavy storms. The main benefit would be the capture of moderate runoff from lighter, more common rainfall events.

 

[jplee3]

Is the rain garden/rock garden going to be downslope from the house to fully capture the runoff from the roof?

In either case, a rain garden would have an overflow for the major runoff from rare, heavy storms. The main benefit would be the capture of moderate runoff from lighter, more common rainfall events.

Yes, so I would imagine the rain/rock garden somewhere in this vicinity:

The actual grass I guess we would just replace with like 6-8 native plants? Not sure what kind. I have been wanting to plant elderberry plants though but may do that in the backyard.

Alternatively, I was thinking we could also consider a rock garden area on the inside of the wall (same area as the orange tree in the above pic):

I've outlined the area with red and the orange circle indicates where the current old catch basin is. I'm not sure if it would make sense to swap that out with a dry well and if a rock garden would even make sense there especially if there's a drywell. Currently that's where a majority of the roof run-off is exiting which then goes to the street (tons of lost opportunity there).

I'm strongly considering placing at least two rain barrels to capture and preserve most of the run-off. We do have one gutter on the left-hand side of the house where I could probably place another rain barrel but not sure. It's such a small space and I could also probably put a small rain garden in that area too although we'd have to be careful with digging since that's where the gas line and telecom lines come in. We will probably be running electrical conduit under there as well soon.

 

[Marck]

That first area sounds like a particularly good area for a swale by creating a dip between the wall and the bermed area where the lawn is now.
Even a permeable walking surface such as a gravel or woodchip terrace can function as collection area for some runoff.
For example that area of rough stepping stones, which ould be made more permaeble wy setting them in a matrix of something like decomposed granite.

 

[jplee3]

That first area sounds like a particularly good area for a swale by creating a dip between the wall and the bermed area where the lawn is now.
Even a permeable walking surface such as a gravel or woodchip terrace can function as collection area for some runoff.
For example that area of rough stepping stones, which ould be made more permaeble wy setting them in a matrix of something like decomposed granite.

Interesting - there used to be a ficus tree there so it's kind of hard to excavate. I'm not sure how we would do that without some intense stump grinding. We'd also have to pull out the irrigation in that area too.

The inside 'courtyard' area, including the flagstones, and that brick-framed rose garden, I would like to flatten out and turn into a more usable space. It would be nice to have a lounging area out there too. Something with this look but also with the pavers wider apart and some areas where native plants are planted in the sand/areas between the pavers:

The problem is that my wife doesn't like the flag stone look very much, so we would have to find something we could both agree on. I do want to keep the orange tree as well as the other two trees in the furthest part of the courtyard (where the catch basin is) - one is a peach tree and I'm not sure what the other is but I think it's another type of stone fruit (just checked - it's an apricot tree!). We also have a crab apple tree, loquat tree (tried one from another plant we found walking through our neighborhood and they are delicious! our tree actually has some sprouted but they're super high up - I need a coffee can/tin on a long stick to collect), and some other type of citrus tree along the side near the backyard. None of those are doing that well, so if they can't be revived, we may just removed them. There's a large [fruitless] avocado (I think) tree as well as a fig tree in the side alley too, along with a couple magnolia trees and holly trees. I like the magnolias but the others may need to go. I'm not sure what we would do around all those trees and if it's better just to pour in some small and medium sized river rocks and mulch the base of the trees we want to keep. Our yard is actually a decent size if you consider the back, side and front courtyard as one unit. We could theoretically even stretch the section of courtyard in the front where the rose garden is out more forward and enlarge the entire front courtyard and have a smaller front lawn (visible to the street). But that would probably cost quite a bit more money to do.