The other day I just happened to have some extra stone that I had bought a few weeks ago on a large palette with some miscellaneous landscaping supplies. I thought that a dry creek bed might look better than the cheap looking plastic tube that was attached to the end of the downspout so I started putting one together using those stones. It took about 4 partially filled bags of stone and a little landscape fabric to complete. It's a simple enough project to complete in 30 to 40 minutes.
First I cut landscape fabric to fit the area. Landscape fabric is good for this use since it is porous and will prevent weeds from underneath. It won't stop weeds that blow in so future weedings will be necessary. I made a triangular shape for the part closest to the house then overlapped other pieces of fabric toward the outside border. I kept the fabric narrow to simulate a small stream bed. I held the fabric down with larger stones temporarily then spread the stone starting with the largest stones first and the smallest ones last. Then I spread the mulch back up to the edge of the stones.
There it is, a new dry creek bed near the Japanese maple and the corner shade garden!
There's one example of water wise gardening, take a look at my rain garden posts or head over to Gardening Gone Wild to see some more!Labels: Drainage Problem, garden design, shade garden
