A muddy lawn area converted into a dry riverbed run made from hardwood mulch and stones, with a small pond and native plants.
The project
A few months back I decided I needed to add some drainage around the wife's studio as it was a muddy area after rain and turned a bit of the lawn into a sludge area. Not appealing at all.
What should have been an easy dig around the studio and then put in drainage turned into something else completely. I looked at the lay of the land once digging started and thought I could do a small river bed kind of thing, and then as per normal the brain got into bigger and better mode.
I had an old pond lying around, got the tools out and it took about four months all up, on and off, and we are nearly done.
I like hard work so I did lots of shovelling and pulling out the larger weeds, then put down a double layer of cardboard to kill anything under it. I didn't use plastic, not a fan. I used hardwood mulch and there are no silt or run-off issues.
Then I put soil in areas on top. In some places I put rocks in.
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, it's worked really well. Stage 2 is a large half-moon back to the fence lines, larger flowering gums and smaller natives, and a large water feature.
Before and after
