The dry creek bed is done!

It was a lot of work. A lot of sweat and dirt and rocks, but thankfully no blood or tears. Finally the dry creek bed project is done. 

What started out as a boring, weedy, puddly section of the hill down to the creek has become a beautiful rock garden. But before it became beautiful, it was a mud slide.

Then came the landscape fabric and the rocks. Lots of rocks. Truckload after truckload of hand-picked (by us) locally dredged rocks. Add to that a ton or two of pea gravel and small river rocks to fill in the bed and it's done! Easy peasy!

We now have a gently meandering stream of rocks to carry our downspout drainage directly to the creek. But it's not solely utilitarian. That would be boring. It is also a great place to sit on the bigger boulders, watch the spiders that have taken up residence there, jump over the narrower sections, balance on the rocks, run up and down the hill as they shift under your feet, sort through the pebbles, look at the lovely colors, stack them, toss them, and keep them as treasures. Because that's the point of a nature playscape- it has to be fun! 

 Since the rocks are the focal point of this project, the kiddos took some pictures of their favorites.