How to Design and Build a Dry Riverbed

Designing a dry riverbed

Riverbeds are powerful features in a landscape. They can be functional as space dividers, vital as drainage conductors and beautiful as decor. When planing to add a dry riverbed to your garden, consider the function that it will serve. If it might be conducting water (maybe from heavy rains) away from a structure, then it is vital you plan the course you want it to take in conjunction with where the water needs to flow. If it divides areas, consider the layout of all the spaces. If it is decorative, find a location where it will look best without being in the way of easy passage or plan a bridge for crossing. Roughly sketch all your plans on paper before starting the work.

Difficulty:

Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Marking paint
• Digging tools
• Weed block cloth or cement
• Rocks

1. Draw out your riverbed on the ground with marking paint so you can see how it will fit in. Riverbeds are never straight lines, so make sure it meanders. Design the riverbed to make it appear out of a crop of boulders or curve out of a bed of large plants, a clump of trees or from behind a structure. Try not to design your riverbed popping out of nowhere.

2. Dig your stream bed along the marked line. The depression is necessary to allow any water that enters to course down and away. To keep weeds from growing in your riverbed, you can line it with cement (especially if you expect it to fill with water regularly) or put down weed block before you fill the area.

3. If you want a natural look for your riverbed, use local rock of different sizes. Keep in mind that nature has a random appearance and a real riverbed has boulders strewn here and there. A channel carved by running water has patches of small gravel and pockets of sand also collect in spots. If you want a stylized effect, use rocks of the same size and color, like black, rounded river stones, for example.

Tips & Warnings

• Your riverbed can be a useful French drain that can divert water away from your home from rain or swimming pool spillage.

• Bridges over riverbeds make splendid focal points.

• Light it all up at night with low-voltage lighting or solar lamps.

References

• "Fine Gardening" magazine; Dry Stream Does Double Duty; Paula Refi