Another project, but this one was really a necessity, sort of. This project stems from me trying to find a solution for the river that appears in my backyard when it rains for a day or two. The yard slopes and it probably needs a professional to fix it properly, but I thought maybe I could fix the problem with my own DIY dry river bed project. All I had to do was get some rocks and lay them in the path of the water flow down the length of the back yard. That’s maybe 200ft, give or take. I searched all over Pinterest and found some great ideas and pinned them to my Outdoor Drainage board.
Look at this one:
I love the mix of river rock and boulders.
So, I figured I could go and find some rock and get that backyard in tip-top shape in no time. It was time to run the idea past my in-house contractor (Dad) and see what he thought. I somewhat remember a long laugh and then a, “WHAT????”
He had a brilliant response after that. He takes me outside to another problematic drain spot on the side of my driveway and tells me that I should start small, “Build one for this little area first, Krescent.” Not really what I wanted to hear, because I’m always go big or go home. Who’s got time for this small stuff???? Ok…no problem, I’ll get these few little measly rocks to show him I’m all about it. I head out to the store and get 3-4 bags of stone. They seem a tad bit small, but that’s okay for this teeny weeny dry river bed. We get home and I spread those suckers out like lightning.
Here is the first attempt in all its glory! LOL, it looks hideous!
I was real proud of that, until it rained and this happened!
Really? Seriously? Are you kidding me? Where the heck did my stones go? Did a squirrel carry them away? Was there a tornado??
It didn’t even rain all that hard and my stones washed away. My dad is now laughing at me, really hard, right now. I’m thinking we need bigger stones, so I start looking for stone supply companies nearby. Well, it turns out you need to buy a whole pallet of rocks to the tune of $1000 at most places, but I finally found a spot to buy stone by the pound. Did you know they sell stone by the pound??? I didn’t!
This failed project is really starting to work a nerve! Now I have to go to the rock store and buy stone by the pound and how do I figure out how many pounds of stone? Luckily, there was a really helpful stone guy who said I would probably need about 400 pounds of stones. Now I’m laughing, just to keep from crying. It turns out that the cost was about $45 and they loaded it into my Suburban for me. When I get it home, the in-house contractor tells me I should get the back of the truck as close as possible to the area, so I don’t have to carry the stones too far. Thanks for the tip, DAD! Picking up each of those rocks was not fun….not fun AT ALL.
Here is the second attempt at my DIY dry river bed:
Unlike the last time, this did not go lightning fast. I thought about scooping up the other stones, but the heat index made me think otherwise. You can see them peaking out from beneath and I’ll probably rearrange them a little when it cools down, but it has certainly helped the drainage issue tremendously. Thanks again to Barry for the dirt and mulch delivery. It’s nice having friends with a pickup truck! The next project is trying to figure out how to get the grass to grow back in that area. However, I have since changed my mind about the dry river bed in the backyard. Who’s gonna lug tons of stone waaaaay to the backyard??? Not me! I told you Dad was smart. It looks like I’ll be calling in the pro’s for that job!
