In my new home, the grass in front of me was all muddy, an uneven, flooded ground pool. Rather than putting all that water into the city drains, I redirected it to filter the soil and watered the surrounding plants. Designing your own dry riverbed may eliminate your drainage issues… Poof!
In my front yard I planted a beautiful meadow-like wildflower lawn. So far, it was a star of the block as everyone is stopping and admiring.
I used West Coast Seed Alternative Lawn Mix Wildflowers for my Wildflower lawn. I didn’t understand how many wild flowers it produces!
There are grass grasses, so I thought there were only a few flowers in the grass. I thought I could mow it and use it just like any other grass.
But that wasn’t the case at all. My expectations for a wildflower lawn were simply blown away from the water.
Beautiful, I didn’t change things, but that meant that walking in our garden was not impossible. To get to the backyard, go down the sidewalk, through the gate, down the street, through another gate.
It’s complicated isn’t it?
I knew I needed a solution and instead of building a simple path, I decided to solve another problem in my garden: drainage.
Here’s how you made a dry river and what you should know before you make yourself.
What is a dry river?
Dry rivers are a decorative solution to garden drainage problems. They create a water collection space where water from your home can filter back into the soil. The surrounding plants can then reach for deeper roots and hydration. It’s win-win!
The dry river beds are made of river stones, mimicking the appearance of a wild river. The result is a rock element that looks very natural in your garden. It can blend in or become functional in itself, or be aesthetic and functional.
Choose a dry riverbed location
When I first moved home, it was clear that there was a drainage problem in the front yard. It was muddy, fluffy and neglected.
I was initially inspired to place it in a dry river due to the design method of Eavestrooughs. The trenches collected from the roof were slightly broken and inadequately maintained, draining directly into the soil, or leaving the water out of the house into underground pipes.
As a result, the garden has a very high water table. This means that the plants do very well, as they get plenty of supplementary water in the months of summer drought. So far, there was no need to provide supplemental water to Wildflower lawns.
But when things are cool it holds a lot of water, and things that don’t like wet feet don’t work. The grass was moist during the winter and did not work well in front of the wild flower grass.
Some water is redirected to city runoff and then plumbed to the ocean. This isn’t ideal either. There is no rain falling there naturally and returns to the soil. The existing water on the land must be used to support the plants.
This left me in a tricky place. Because I didn’t want to drain too much near my home, this is a problem and could rot in the frame of my home.
So I redirected the water to the land where it could be properly and efficiently discharged. I moved the water, went into the middle of the lawn and was away from home, but still fed the surrounding plants.
How to make a dry river bed for drainage
The first thing I did was to redirect Eavestrooughs into the middle of the Wildflower grass. This meant I had to do some digging, so I’d like to talk about it later!
I chose the general shape of a dry river, giving it curved and naturalistic shapes, interweaving the grass into the streets, and digging out flowers as I went.
Next, place a layer of landscape fabric on top of the curve you created. Depending on the water and drainage required, you can dig deeper and add a base layer of gravel to help keep excess rainwater. In this post, see examples of such a dry riverbed.
For me, I ended up finishing the landscape fabric with two different sized river stones. There are small ones about 1-2 inches and large stones about 2-4 inches. So far, that’s all I needed!
I then had Kid reorganize the rocks. He wanted them to sort them out so that the big ones are on the outside and the little ones are on the inside. We did not use any kind of edging.
Kidd feels pride in working in the garden, and he always talks about dry rivers. I love watching him become attached to the garden.
Maintain a dry river
So far, the only maintenance I have done in my front yard is to shear the grass and cut out the flowers along the edge of the dry riverbed.
I wanted a walk, but walking is a bit unstable. For people like me with disabilities, having a Riverstone aisle can be a bit of a challenge. Twisted ankles are definitely a concern.
But for my family, it shouldn’t be a big walk. No wheelbarrows or people walk every day. It’s just used when animals and our family need to cross wild flowers.
I might adjust that in the future, but for now I am happy. It also involves adding natural pavement stones to the center to make them look like passageways.
Dry rivers do not require much maintenance, but do not require the necessary adjustments. It’s not immediately clear how drainage will work until it rains!
Landscaping dry river beds
When I removed the wild flowers, I tried to hold them and transplant them. Sweet alyssum was well transplanted, but most of the other flowers did not.
Heading towards the house on one side of the dry river, I dug out the remaining wild flowers and turned the space into a drought-resistant herb garden. So far I have lavender, sage, rosemary and some yarrows.
These drought-resistant plants do not require supplemental water in the summer, but arid rivers help keep moisture in the ground where deep roots of perennial plants can reach them.
And the plants look beautiful too!
Dry rivers are very similar to rain gardens and have many of the same principles. Find more dry river landscaping and plant ideas at this Rain Gardens Post.
How to Design a Drought-Friendly Garden
With a city girl who learned to garden, it changed everything. Author, artist, master gardener. A better life through plants.
