How to Make a Man-Made Creek Bed With Garden Bridge

Landscaping around your creek makes it appear more natural.

A man-made creek bed with a garden bridge adds interest to your landscape, and it can help route water to another location during rainy times. Little precision is required with any step of a creek-bed project, and a helper will make the work proceed faster. Call your public utility company and ask it to mark buried utility lines before you dig.

Things You'll Need

• Biodegradable spray paint
• Shovel
• Measuring tape
• Sand
• Landscaping pebbles
• 2 pressure treated boards, 2-by-12
• Pressure treated boards, 2-by-4
• Pencil
• Jigsaw
• Wood screws
• Power drill

Instructions

Dig the Creek

1. Mark the left and right sides of your creek bed with biodegradable spray paint. Do not strive for a symmetrical outline, which looks unnatural.

2. Remove shovelfuls of dirt between the outline marks. Use the lines as your guide, but don't be concerned with perfection.

3. Measure the depth of the creek bed with a measuring tape occasionally as you dig. Washington State University Extension recommends a 2:1 ratio, with the creek bed half as deep as it is wide.

4. Fill the creek bed with 2 inches of sand. Cover the sand with 2 inches of pebbles. Measure across the finished creek bed. Buy 2-by-12 lumber at least 3 feet longer than the width of the creek.

Build the Bridge

1. Place one 2-by-12 flat on a work surface. Measure across the edge that faces you, and make a mark at the center. Repeat on the edge of the board facing away from you. Measure up 5 inches from the center mark facing you, and make another mark. Refer to it as the center arch mark.

2. Measure over 18 inches from the left end of the board on the edge facing you. Make a mark. Repeat on the right. Rod Bird, of Handcrafted Wood Bridges, suggests drawing a free-hand, arching line on the board with a pencil from the 18-inch mark on the left, up to the center arch mark, and back down to the 18-inch mark on the right.

3. Draw a parallel line above the first one from the lower left corner of the board, up to the center mark on the edge of the board facing away from you, and back down to the lower right corner. Cut the board along both lines using a jigsaw. Place the cut board on top of the second 2-by-12 board for a template. Trace its outline onto the second board, and cut it along the lines.

4. Measure and cut 2-by-4 boards into 36-inch-long pieces.

5. Set the two curved boards side by side, 36 inches apart on a flat surface, with arches bowing up. This is the bridge foundation. Have a helper hold the boards steady. Place one cut 2-by-4 board flat across the top of one end of the foundation. Insert wood screws through the left and right ends of the 2-by-4, into the the foundation boards using a power drill. Repeat at the opposite end of the foundation. Cover the rest of the foundation with 2-by-4 boards in the same manner, leaving a 1/4-inch gap between them. Set the arched bridge across the creek.

Tips & Warnings

• Seal the wood with deck sealer.

• Don't direct the creek toward your house, which can cause flooding in rainy weather.

References

• Washington State University Extension; Dry Creek Beds; March 2005
• Handcrafted Garden Bridges; How to Build an Arched Foot Bridge - Part 1; Rod Bird; February 2005

Resources

• The Gardener's Rake; Add a Dry Creek to Your Yard ...; July 2008
• Fine Gardening; Dry Stream Does Double Duty; Paula Refi