Dry Creek Garden

Northern California homeowners Steve and Joanie Wynn have a small brick patio in their backyard, but the view is of an ugly, overgrown hillside. The perfect solution, landscape designer Jamie McMurray says, is to install a meandering dry creek bed, with meadow plantings on the banks and a container water garden at the base to lend the sound of a babbling brook. The Wynns love the idea; it will give them a place to read and relax while listening to the soothing sound of water.

Now it's time to lay the rocks and stones that will form the dry creek bed. Use a variety of sizes, and try to place them in a way that imitates nature; that is, put larger, heavier stones on the sides of the creek bed (figure C), and place smaller stones so that they "flow" down the middle of the creek.

Take a look at the "before" and "after" photos. The Wynns' backyard has been transformed from a weedy, overgrown area to a natural-looking meadow that looks as if it has always been there. The dry creek bed provides just the view they wanted from their brick patio, and the container water garden completes the illusion of a trickling brook.