In
Curb Appeal Part I, I took out a few trees and began working on my dry creek bed for better water drainage near my front porch. Since then, the digging progressed significantly, I made a few more phone calls to the utility company, and I've learned how truly messy mud is. I've also purchased rock, and then returned to the store for more rock, and then realized I still needed MORE ROCK.
Dig, Dig, Dig
After my first post, I continued to dig.
And dig.
And dig.
I really couldn't take pictures. I was too muddy. The yard way too muddy. Everything looked like a war zone. At the deepest part, I got about a foot into the ground, which is easier said than done when the earth you're working with is uncooperative. I also learned to dig wider than I anticipated.
A really important note if you're making your own creek bed is to test the thing out. Before you apply landscaping fabric and rocks, see what happens in the rain, or run a hose at the very least. You need to make sure the water is running in ways you anticipated. After a few rains, I realized I needed to dig even more. I went out to deepen and widen our bed (after I thought it was surely ready) at least three different times. Once you lay the fabric and stones, you will struggle to make any changes, so
don't rush the first step: Digging.
And when you realize you need to dig more near any utilities, make sure to call your utility and verify the depth of wires or pipes. Even though I had space, I was a nervous wreck about hitting our gas line. A repair like that is expensive, and a leak is dangerous.
Take the utmost caution around utilities, do not cut corners, and keep yourself safe.
Prepping the Area After Digging
Once the digging was finally done, I grabbed my landscaping fabric (
this stuff has worked wonderfully in my gardens and my creek bed. I use
these staples). When you're laying fabric, make sure there's some give, as the weight of the rocks and the natural shifting of the ground means fabric will be stretched and moved.
You want to use landscaping fabric because it prevents weeds and helps keep your rocks from sinking into the mud. It's a simple barrier that is non-negotiable.
When laying your landscape fabric, be generous both inside the bed and around the lip of the creek. It is much easier to fold and hide extra fabric under rocks than it is to struggle with fabric falling down because you cut it too small. Just like in sewing, it's easier to remove extra than fix a mistake where you cut too little fabric. And those fabric staples? They will be a lifesaver when you're trying to get your fabric to cover the uneven curves of your creek bed.
Picking out rocks takes a little research. After seeing examples of good rock combinations, which used a variety of sizes and colors to make a more natural look, I settled on three types from Home Depot. My favorite are the
Mexican beach pebbles, which are smooth and beautiful, but more expensive. I used those as an accent (and only near the top layers of rock), while using cheaper stone as the base layer. When I was in the store, I liked the
Pond Pebbles and the
River Pebbles, which were different sizes.
You have to buy your stone in person. There is too much potential size and color variation online. For example, the yellow-tinged rocks that come up on my screen when looking at the pond and river pebbles are nothing like the actual product, at least not the ones I bought. This will also allow you to follow the "
use at least three different rock sizes" rule.
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| It gets worse before it gets better. |
For whatever reason, I didn't snap any pictures of the fabric laying, rock placing process. It was messy and tiring. I should have stopped and grabbed a camera, but I didn't.
Once the fabric was down and my trench was filled with rocks, I pretty much left the area a mess. It was fall, and winter was coming. I knew I'd want to plant in the spring. Then, spring arrived, and
man did that grass grow.
If you look at the left side of the picture, you can see where DH was unable to mow down the grass. Some might say it gives a nice, natural look. To me,
it looked like an unfinished mess that would be hard to maintain. This alone led to an entire mulching and planting project.
Lesson learned: Plan ahead for what will exist around your lovely dry creek bed. Will you dig up all the grass and plant along the rocks? If so, make this happen before you lay fabric and stone. Will you mulch?
Be sure to have a plan.
You can see that, the spring after laying the rock, I found a few plants.
I used Nextdoor.com to get in touch with neighbors. I got some hostas and irises for free this way. I also grabbed some ground cover from Home Depot. As I looked at the area,
I decided to put mulch and plants along the entire area, because the grass and weeds were taking over.
This is where the dry creek bed project turns into a "Let's update all of the walkway landscaping project."
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| Designing the space around a dry creek bed. |
Once I realized that I needed to find a better way to manage the vegetation around the dry creek bed, I began thinking about all my options, and once I decided to put down mulch and plants, I decided to also invest in some edging to keep everything looking tidy. This required that I dog up the dirt along the walkway.
As I began digging, I realized my walkway had an extra 2-3 inches, it was simply hidden under years of dirt!
As you can see I moved some edging stones, dug out our walkway, laid edging, planted plants, and began the mulching process.
So,
if you want a dry creek bed, realize that you may end up with a whole lot more than you bargained for.
And yes, my drainage issue has been resolved.
See Part III: The Dry Creek Bed Saga Becomes Something Bigger here.
