Few months back decided I needed to add some drainage around the wife's studio as it was a muddy area (That sat) after rain and turned abit of the lawn into a sludge area not appealing at all, made mowing fun lolWhat should have been an easy dig around the studio, put in drainage and be done with it turned into something else completely, I looked at the lay of the land once digging started and thought hmmm I could do a small riverbed kinda thing here, and then as per normal the brain got into bigger and better mode, had an old pond lying around, got the tools out and BHAM took about 4 months all up on and off and we are nearly done, I had a Dragonfruit area up top we have pulled those out and relocated them and stage 2 will commence soon (photos went out of order )
Hi @TheSaltyreefer,
You have done an incredible job, I am digging your riverbed garden! It is truly incredible what happens when we let ourselves have a bit of a creative play with a space.
What will you be doing during phase 2? Sounds very exciting.
Katie
From little things - big things grow 🙂 Well done. Simple solution in theory but a bit of work. Will look great once established.
@TheSaltyreefer
😲 So impressed! Serious amont of digging and getting it right! It looks right which is half the job 🙂
I am planning on a watrcpourse/pond in my yard to slow torential downpours and let it seap into the ground as much as possible so your project caught my eye.
A couple of questions you may be able to help me out on. Did you place any plastic to reduce weeds underneath the stone bed? And what about potential silt? Im torn between no plastic and handling weeds (to allow as much as possible seapage into the ground) or to have it look really nice for a long time betwwen sorting weeds out.
Love the funcionality of the riverbed and the actual landscaping. Done well.
Dave
Stage 2 is a large half moon back to the fence lines, larger flowering gums and smaller natives and a large water feature ☺️
(I chuckled at your (Im DIGGING) 😋
They sure do, looks and works a treat
Hey mate, no plastic not a fan, I like hard work so lots of shoveling and pulling out larger weeds, then double layer cardboard down to kill anything under it, soil in areas on top in places rocks in, hardwood mulch n no silt or run off issues, we have had some massive storms since finishing it, and it's held up beautifully, to date I think I have only had one or two small weeds, its worked really well
Outatanding, I've always loved this kind of river bed feature but more importantly to work with the land and not against it.
So many times people try to change the way drainage works and that is almost an impossibility and now you have successful drainage and something beautiful to look at too.
Well done.
Cheers,
Barbara
thanks Barbaralots of work, but really happy with the outcome, the best part now is enjoying it and watching the plants grow
@TheSaltyreefer Absolutely beautiful mate. I was just thinking what a perfect sanctuary for the frogs to live and also different wildlife.
thanks mate, its certainly helped in both those area's
Wow! excellent work turning an area into a show piece.
Hi @Silkyoak
Let me tag @TheSaltyreefer to make sure they see your kind words. I totally agree it is a wonderful feature in the garden.
Eric
thanks mate, its awesome
Stage 2 starting soon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
hahahahah 🙂 I recognise that excitement! Also tinged with "How to get past this issue" Looking forward to seeing it!
I have a project almost at the oil the timber stage" but am stuck on how to make a decent handrail 🙂 Im waiting for that "starting sooooon" to kick in for me! 🙂
You could always post your handrail project and see if our helpful members have some feedback for you @Dave-1. That could provide enough encouragement to get those gears moving.
Mitchell
@MitchellMc
🙂 lol Thank you and yep thats an idea. Really dont know why I didnt think of that myself!
Always something to do lol
Lucky I only work 3 days a week now
@Dave-1
Honestly plastic is not the way to go with weeds or gardening in general EVER. So many people think weeds come from underneath and whist that is true to an extent, they come on the wind as well or by birds flying over, so plastic won't stop the weeds entirely but will certainly hinder plant growth and health.
My husband and I are farmers and have to spray weeds in our pastures constantly and have been doing that for over 40+ years so it's fair to assume once weeds "seed" even once, the seed bank population in the ground will last for decades, so the same goes with gardening, it is a constant struggle to try to stem the tide of undesirable plants. I sprayed around my garden only a few months ago and now nearly have a lawn driveway, it just never stops!!
The best way to prevent weed formation in garden beds especially is to MULCH, any kind, stones, bark etc...the weeds will still come and go but you will find them pretty easy to pull out or spray if you don't mind using chemicals.The most important thing though with the mulch is to make it nice and thick, 20cm no less.
Mulch can also soak up an awful lot of moisture/water and keep silt movement to a minimum if you use bark, so think of it as a big sponge that will hold excess water whilst the rest of the water passing through can seep into the surrounding area and get away.
My soil in winter is not good at soaking water because of the clay base and so I have an aquatic lawn and orchard at times and because the land is quite flat, it simply can't run off so I do lose plants from time to time because they simply drown but thems the breaks ha-ha
I'm no expert but have learnt from simple experience. I live rurally and have a septic system and near the end of the system in winter especially I was getting a small swamp area which I couldn't go near with the mower or risk getting bogged but the grass grew really well, so I planted some Arum lilies, not necessarilly a favourable plant but fantastic for taking up allot of water, often found living in or near any body of water. I mulched heavily and now I can mow right up to the area in the wettest winters like we've had with the La Nina weather pattern over the last few years.
I remove all seed pods with the lilies periodically but having said that I have not had them invade other areas of the farm. It's really all about maintenence and if you're a gardener you will always understand that plants and lawns etc... need to be maintained.
@Baretta11
Sorry Not sure what you mean about the plastic? I dont think I have mentioned it in this project?
Hi @Dave-1,
I believe @Baretta11 might have been referring to your first comment and question on page one of the discussion regarding the watercourse/pond you are intending to build and how to suppress weeds.
Sorry Dave, it was a question in your initial comment and not that you intended to use plastic but you asked if plastic might have been used by @TheSaltyreefer in his project and I thought I'd jump on board and suggest alternatives to anyone thinking of using plastic. Sorry for the confusion.
Bingo! Makes sense now. Finally managed to find where I referenced the plastic (The page dosnt show all the conversation when people reply). Weeds always manage to come up when I place mulch of any kind down, so I was just asking what Thesaltyreefer did in case there was something I could do differently.
Yes sometimes others have done something that one might not have automaticaly thought of doing, especially in the case of @TheSaltyreefer project with all the drainage issues.
Qiute honestly I don't think too many people use plastic nowadays as I think they all know it doesn't work too well.
As I mentioned in my earlier post I have water retension issues too, mainly in my lawn to the point that I joke about having an aquatic orchard and other areas get up to 10cm of water lying on the grass, so what I did in three places now was to put in aggi pipe and get some ofthe water away to a lower lying area of the property and it sort of works but sometimes there is just too much rain and theres nothing I can do to change that short of doing what @TheSaltyreefer did but it wouldn't work in my instance for the way I have everything laid out but it's great someone could do something to make it better.
@TheSaltyreefer this looks great! Thanks for sharing i will follow for phase 2 as I wish to create something similar in the future.
Will pop some images up soon of some progress made
Well its been awhile
Thought I would pop up a video around 3 months ago of where I am at, it looks plenty different now after all the rain, plants are growing amazingly well, will post again soon
I am about to start on another section shortly, never ending journey haha
Have a nice Xmas people
Looks terrific @TheSaltyreefer, many thanks for the update.
Great to see you back on the site. What's your next project?
Hope you and the family have a fantastic festive season.
Jason
Afternoon @TheSaltyreefer
Looks great 🙂 Love how your older plants are filling out 🙂
@Dave-1 will post up another shortly, the change from this one to now is amazing, have a great Xmas
