How to Build a Dry River Bed
I really wanted to put a dry river bed here - eventually to go up the edge of the lawn as a border - but definitely down in front of the lower garden. I read several blogs about how to do this project (most claiming to do one in a weekend!), but I knew I would have to end up doing it my way…the way I always do it…on the fly!
Here was the front of my yard before I started digging. The front of the “lower” garden just begged to be edged with a river bed. It was already edged in rocks and there appeared to be more in front. I decided to start my river in the hill next to the water boxes and end it into the culvert under my driveway.
I learned my lesson when digging the upper and lower gardens - a shovel in this ground was going to kill me. And looking at the ground here, I knew it was exceptionally rocky. So I borrowed my dad’s pick and one cool Friday morning, I set to work. I used the pick to draw out the edge I wanted to create and started to dig up the rocks.
I was shocked as I started digging…ALL of the rocks pictured CAME FROM THE GROUND!!! Maybe I wouldn’t even get into my stash of rocks I was saving for this project… It appeared that someone before had tried to do the exact thing I was planning; just nature took over and covered their work. There was no way that this amount of rock was normal, even for this rocky soil!
I kept every size - the big and the small. I only dug down about 6 inches and kept the dirt level and patted down. I didn’t use a tamper - I just walked on the pathway.
A lot of the blogs I read talked about making a dry river bed as a drainage for excess water. I had no desire to do that as this space doesn’t need it. Even though I have a culvert, I have never had water in this area below my lower garden. The rain has never filled this space up. So I wasn’t worried about putting in a gravel base or lining the river bed with plastic.
I smoothed out the ground and then laid down weed blocker. This area got a lot of weeds in the spring and summer and I am hoping that the blocker will help with keeping them in check. I began laying down my larger rocks on the edge interspersed with some smaller ones for variety. I had a huge one that I put at the top of my river with some small rocks next to it. I wanted to give the illusion that a spring could bubble up from that small space at any moment!
I did end up having to purchase a couple of bags of river rock to fill in the gaps (and will probably need to get one more to fill it in a bit more), but 95% of the rocks that are in the river bed are ones that came from that very spot as I dug. It was amazing to find so many right there! I am pleased to have this project pretty much done and can’t wait to light it at Christmas time with blue twinkling lights!
