Raingarden Irony

The wonderful irony of the raingarden featured below, which we installed at the TulsaPartners, Inc. office in September 2010, is that it HAS NOT RAINED significantly since then.  And we always get the question - "Do I need to water my raingarden?"  The short answer is "Yes", especially in the first year or if it hasn't rained for a while.  Raingardens should be designed to feature water-loving plants as well as plants that can handle both dry heat and periodic flooding.   And this means that they do need to be watered, especially for the first growing season.  Come Spring, we'll see what of this garden survives. My bet is on the Russian sage.