If you want to make a dramatic statement in your garden, without a lot of maintenance, a DIY dry creek beds are the way to go. It gives your yard a natural feel. And they are surprisingly easy to DIY, but still have a professional look to the finished project. They are great options for an area that doesn’t drain well, has poor soil, or perhaps has an easement. Try these DIY dry creek landscaping ideas to give your yard that “wow” factor without the upkeep of a true water feature!
How to Build a Dry Creek Bed
A few tips to keep in mind?
- The creek or stream bed should meander naturally, never in a straight line.
- Add larger boulders at turns in the creek bed for drama.
- Vary the size of the rock in your creek bed.
- Anchor the “banks” of your creek bed with plants.
- Choose rock that looks natural for your region.
Photo from ‘Houzz‘.
DIY Dry Creek Landscaping Ideas
Let’s start with a tutorial on the basics, how to build a dry creek bed, by ‘BHG‘.
‘Fine Gardening’ also has a great tutorial on making a dry stream bed, but to get to the actual directions, you need to go to page 3 in their How-To post. The first two pages has good information though, so take a peek.
‘Pink and Green Mama,’ did an entire backyard makeover, and they have a DIY dry river bed to cover a drainage problem. Unfortunately this blog is no longer published, but you can achieve the same look with the tutorials we’ve listed or others in this post!
‘My Weeds are Very Sorry‘ has a lot of great tips on stone placement, and how much is enough. (And what is too much!) Good advice on getting a professional look for your DIY dry creek bed.
Dry Creek Bed Ideas
Ok, now on to the inspiration. These don’t have tutorials, (you don’t need them now anyway, you got the basics above!) but they have great ideas for us to.. ahem… steal. :) This dry stream bed by Johnsen Landscapes & Pools was brought to us by ‘Serenity in the Garden‘.
Again from ‘Serenity‘, this is a dry stream bed in the backyard of Jan Johnsen… Love the black rocks! This was done in a small backyard for all of you who think you don’t have enough space.
Lastly, from ‘Sharons Scrapbook‘, this dry creek bed is a great example of lining the “bank” with plants.
Ready to start building a DIY dry creek bed? We’ve built two! Now jump on over to our posts on DIY Garden Projects with Rocks and Classic Lawn Edging Ideas! And don’t forget, Pin your favorites! (Our tall pin at the top is great fro this!)
[image-credits]
How do I stop the grass from growing into the dry creek bed? if I poison the grass it makes an ugly wide dead edge and the whipper snipper breaks on the rocks.
Hi Lana! We only know of two ways to control weeds or unwanted grass… spraying them, using landscape fabric underneath, and hand pulling! The biggest pain of gardening, we know!
Great post Kathy! Thanks for sharing.
hello,
I love ur idea’s & pics! I moved to a house that has a 3/4 acre for a back yard, im thinking of doin a peanut shaped somewhat dry creak bed with a bridge & a few plants in the spring of 17….
wish me luck! <3
Thanks Kathy! I love what you said about my dry stream and enjoy reading your posts!
Jan Johnsen
Thx Jan! It’s beautiful, and we love your site!
Beautiful options! Looking forward to building a Dry Creek Bed in my yard!
I made a dry bed and love it! However, does anyone have any good suggestions on how to keep or clean oak leaves out of the bed during the fall? I have about four oak trees around the dry bed and they drop enough leaves to cover the entire bed. I could put out a large tarp and cover the bed (anchor the tarp down) but didn’t know if anyone had some easier tips. I do use a leaf blower to push back what I can as well. Thank you for any advise. :)
We use a shop vac to suck up leaves from around a prickly cactus, wonder if that would work for you?
I once read an article about someone who had a large collection of mosses in his garden, and he put netting over them in the fall, which allowed him to pick up all the leaves at once without damaging the moss. Might work for a dry creekbed too. I’m thinking of trying a leaf blower myself, though around here the leaves always fall with tons of rain, so they don’t blow away very easily. Removing leaves and debris is a must, though, because otherwise they would compost and create soil in among your rocks and then you’d have weeds all over within a year or two.
We had a pond at our last home and would bend pvc pipes over it with rebar in the ground to hold them and put netting over it. Being raised helped push the leaves away and made SPRING cleaning a snap. This could work in gardens too!
Thanks for this great post!
A definite must for my yard