How To Build Dry Creek Beds For Landscape Drainage

By  Hunker Team

Things Needed

  • Shovel

  • Tamping tool

  • Landscape fabric

  • Landscape fabric pins or garden staples

  • Boulders in various sizes from 1 to 3 feet across

  • Round river rock in 1, 2 and 3 inch sizes

  • 1/2 inch round pebbles

Tip

Check with your city's public works department if there is a problem as to where to direct the excess water.

How to Build Dry Creek Beds for Landscape Drainage. Sloping property often has drainage problems. Erosion and landscape damage often occur but can be corrected by adding a dry creek bed for excess water to escape. A dry creek bed is attractive and adds the ambiance of a rushing stream, even without water. Here is how to build a dry creek bed for landscape drainage.

Step 1

Plan the course of the dry creek bed. Outline the shape with a garden hose. Create gentle curves and turns that resemble a meandering stream. Redirect the bottom of the stream away from the property for proper drainage.

Step 2

Dig the outline using a shovel and make sure the creek bed is slightly deeper in the middle. Use the soil to build up mounds along the sides of the dry creek bed. Tamp the soil down with a tamping tool. Dry creek beds are usually about 3 feet wide and 1 1/2 inches deep.

Step 3

Lay landscape fabric in the creek bed to keep weeds from growing. Don't get any of the dirt on the fabric. Place the large boulders here and there along the sides of the creek bed and settle them in 1 to 2 inches deep.

Step 4

Scatter the largest size of river rock over the fabric of the creek bed. Add an inch deep layer of pebbles over everything, then toss the remaining sizes of river rock here and there to meander down the dry creek bed.

Step 5

Walk around on the pebbles to settle them. Use plants and tall ornamental grasses to soften the edges of the dry river bed.

Step 6

Add a landscape bridge over the dry creek bed if desired.

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