Rock On: Revive Your Yard Easily With Rock and Stone Additions

Rivers made of rocks, hidden pathways, accents, beautiful adornments you never have to water or touch?

Rocks have been around since...the stone age? Probably a lot longer than that! We’re landscaping experts, not historians. 

Rocks certainly aren’t budging or going anywhere anytime soon. Here’s how to leverage their time-tested durability and minimal aesthetic to take your yard to the next level.

Simple, elegant uses of rock and stone

Since rocks come in all shapes, sizes, and colors, you can use them to accent other parts of your yard, to create an effective boundary or barrier, or put them on center stage.

A step-by-step guide to dry creek beds

Dry creek beds not only look pretty, but they can also put an end to any drainage issues you’re having with your yard and deter ruts from forming.

Step 1: Start by buying some marking paint and creating a shape for your river bed across your yard. Windy paths will better mimic the shape of an actual river and appear more natural to the eye than straight lines. It’s important to find a shape that bends organically through your unique yard. 

Step 2: Dig a two to three foot trench along your lines. Use the soil you’ve dug up as planting mounds on both sides of your new dry creek bed.

Step 3: Next, you’ll need to select larger, chunkier rocks or boulders to act as the base of the river bed. For each boulder, dig out a divot to place it snugly into so that only half is showing and the other half is buried.

Space each boulder one to two feet apart, but be sure not to add too many. You will want ample space for what’s to come next.

Step 4: Roll out weed cloth across the creek bed. You can simply cut the cloth to come directly up against your boulders and wrap around them. 

Step 5: The final step is laying out river cobble across the river bed to cover up the weed cloth and fill in the spaces around the boulders. Cobbles, flat stones, and other rocks of a similar size work best. You can use a monotone color scheme or get creative by selecting rocks of different colors.

Once you’ve cascaded your cobble down the river, step back and assess the natural looking flow of your dry creek bed. Does it mimic a real stream? Does it add a visual flow to your yard? For further details and inspiration, consider consulting this guide.