Practical and Attractive Dry Stream Landscaping

Dry stream landscaping can serve many purposes ranging from controlling water flow to simple decoration. It’s not hard to make an interesting and practical meandering design that looks like a stream but is made only out of rock. You can fill in empty areas where plants won’t grow or make sure heavy rainfall is dispersed to a point you select.

Dry stream landscaping works ideally in specific situations, though it can be used for only decorative purposes as well:

Direct water away from house or low areas
Prevent flooding of yard
Landscape areas where plants won’t grow
Prevent land erosion
Improve general drainage
Ornamental purposes only

Dry Stream Landscaping

Creating a dry stream takes more muscle power than anything. The concept is actually quite simple. You dig a trench, lay a mulch or landscaping fabric, and spread the rock. Of course, to do the job the right way you need to follow some basic rules. For example, water will flow best if you build the dry steam on a slope of some kind. Also, the dry stream should meander which slows the water flow down and is visually more appealing.

Dry streams are most functional when the river rock is placed down the middle, but larger rock is interspersed along the stream on top of the smaller stones. You can fill in the channel with gravel placed around the bottom layer of stones. Your goal is to direct the flow of the water but at a normal rate of speed. Otherwise you will flood at the end of the stream which may be the street or yard drainage system.

Some people use mortar on the fabric to hold the bottom rock in place. The kind of rainfall you have will determine whether this is necessary. You don’t want your rock and gravel being pushed to the end of the steam.

When you do dry stream landscaping, you can build more interesting features into the project. For example, you can add waterfalls or low growing plants along the edge of the dry stream. You can also use a variety of rock sizes and colors to create a natural look. Even practical dry streams can be turned into ornamental additions to your landscape.