Dry stream

This project started in January, I think, during the apocalyptic rains that seemed to have no end. The south side of the house is at the bottom of a slope and the ground was so sodden that water was running over the sidewalk. I figured it was only one more storm or so before the basement would be flooded, like everyone else's.

So I dug a trench about 18" deep through the mud, lined it with good strong landscape cloth and filled it with 3/8-inch gravel (these are charmingly named "French drains"; it's about as close as I'll ever get to France.)

Today I finally got the drain rock layer fairly evenly spread, then laid down another layer of landscape cloth, then pea gravel, then I threw river rocks around in an attempt to make them look like they rolled down the hill into the stream.

After many weekends out there covered in mud, when people must have thought I was nuts, I'm just so relieved it's done. All the time I kept thinking of that silly rhyme my sister Donna used to sing, "Did you ever see a witch digging a ditch...down by the bay."