I’ve designed several stormwater plantings in the Bend Oregon. (Oregon high desert = 12″ precipitation a year) The biggest challenge we have is most of our precip happens in the winter months. We have to irrigate the plantings in the growing season, which is counterintuitive to the purpose. But they do mitigate our gully-washers and are a great alternative to the previous preferred practice, drywells.
To this end and because maintenance budgets are always tight, I used a largely native plant palette. We have a fair amount of plant material that will tolerate the seasonal inundation.
