Reddit reviews Creating Rain Gardens: Capturing the Rain for Your Own Water-Efficient Garden

Hey ans744, congrats on attempting a rain garden! It is difficult for me to comment on your design specific to planting type and density, without knowing the plan of your rain garden.
Here are some starter questions:
What is your base soil (sandy, silty, clay, sand on top of limestone, etc)?
How deep is your rain garden?
What is the size of your intended rain garden?
How much water is going into it (catchment area)?

These elements all determine what plants go where inside your rain garden.

If you're still looking for resources, I recommend you check out the following if you haven't yet:

• "Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond" Volume 2 (book), by Brad Lancaster. http://www.harvestingrainwater.com/books/orders/ or on Amazon. A comprehensive guide on earthworks design for rainwater harvesting, with very succesful examples from Tucson, AZ.
  
• "Creating Rain Gardens" (book) by Cleo Woelfle Erskine and Apryl Uncapher. https://www.amazon.com/Creating-Rain-Gardens-Capturing-Water-Efficient/dp/1604692405 A step-by-step guide for planning and designing a rain garden. Good for covering all the basics you need.
  
• http://www.harvestingrainwater.com/rainwater-harvesting-inforesources/ Same site as author Brad Lancaster's book. Good info.