Another Dry Creek Bed

If you are a regular reader of my blog, you may recall that in 2016, we had a dry creek bed installed in the backyard. You can read about the first dry creek bed here. The left side yard, as you face the house, had a lot of run-off from the driveway during heavy rains in the winter. After replacing the sod four times, we decided that another dry creek bed was needed.

As you can see in these first two photos, there was no grass, just bare clay/soil and tree roots that were exposed by erosion. Around our BBQ pad the water was cutting away the soil. We were worried that the water would go under the pad and compromise it. 

We hired the same company that did our first dry creek bed. They came and marked the new path of a stone creek bed. 

Equipment arrived, and the already-washed-out area was excavated a little deeper. The work went pretty quickly. It is amazing what the correct tools (or machinery) can do to make the job go smoothly. The yard is narrow, and the property line is pretty close, so there's not much room to work. If you look at the bend in the arm of the excavator there is a ribbon hanging on a tree limb. That is the property line!  

After the trench was dug, landscape fabric was pinned into place. Next step is the rocks.

Dormant sod was placed next to the rocks and stone steps were placed through the new mulch bed. So far, I have planted some peonies in between the steps and the rock creek bed. You can see in the photo below where the grill is, then look at the following photo, where you see a little of the mulch bed along the downhill side of the concrete pad. From the driveway to where this newly installed creek bed meets the existing one is a drop of elevation of about 15 feet in approximately 75 feet. 

I can't wait for the spring for the grass to get green. We are also waiting for some rain to see how well the dry creek bed works. 

Views from downhill and uphill to see how nice it looks. 

The tail end of the new dry creek bed feeds into the existing one. It will be an effort to keep the leaves out of the creek bed, but not having to reinstall sod year after year will be wonderful! 

The view from the deck shows the dry creek bed, the mulch bed, and the gravel path through the garden. Once we have green grass and foliage on the shrubs, I will share a photo that highlights the new addition.

©Copyright 2026 Janet. All rights reserved. Content created by Janet for The Queen of Seaford. words and photos by Janet, The Queen of Seaford.

I've Got a Dozen Under My Belt, On To Thirteen

Time sure flies! In 2010 we moved to South Carolina from Virginia. If I were to have to guess, I would say it was only 5 or 6 years! Wow. I hadn't done a yearly review of the yard/gardens for a couple years. Here are a few links to previous posts with photos of progress. I will just share this year's photos today.

2012

2013

2014

2015

2018

Over the years we added a dry creek bed through the backyard, I highly recommend one if you have run-off in your yard that you want to direct. I added a short dry creek bed in the front yard to help with the mulch getting washed downhill. Our lake front area is a mess. I had it redone a few years ago with Hayscented ferns Dennstaedtia punctiloba, Panicum virgatum 'Shenandoah', and four Podocarpus macrophyllus 'Pringles Dwarf'. The ferns needed more water in some areas, the grasses didn't thrive like they should and the Pringles were eaten by the deer. The irrigation wasn't working like it should have. I had it set to go off in the wee hours of dawn, only to find an error code for valve one- the largest section of the yard. Now I manually start the sprinklers and they work fine. Not sure what the issue was. Finally, there was also a tree that fell onto the bank- crushing some of the grasses and ferns. I won't share that area today... maybe another time.

Front garden

The front garden is filled with four Drift Roses 'Popcorn', one Loropetalum 'Purple Pixie', Cercis canadensis 'Ruby Falls' Redbud. Multiple Calla lilies, Zantedeschia albomaculata, have reseeded, a volunteer fern, Thelypteris normalis, popped up by the downspout pop-up and there's plenty of Sedum rupestre 'Angelina' and Dianthus 'Firewitch' spreading along the sidewalk. 

The shed is almost hidden because of all the shrub growth. At the corner of the shed is a large Tea Olive, Osmanthus fragrans. 

The front yard from the other direction. In the small garden, in the photo above is Prunus mume 'Hokkia-bungo' which just shines in December and January. On a warm day the honey bees are all over the blooms, happy to have something blooming at that time of year. Groundcover along the driveway in that garden is Hypericum caylcinum 'Brigadoon'. In the photo below, you can get a better view of the newest garden. A few years ago I decided to mulch the center of the front yard and put in a pollinator garden. The armadillo population and I have a running battle with the plants in that garden. I say they should stay, the armadillo thinks there might be good eats under those plants. To protect the center of the garden I have a small garden fence/edging. In this mulched area I have four Japanese maples- Red Dragon, Butterfly, Virdis, and Crimson Queen. Inside the almost invisible barrier is a selection of Rudbeckia, Echinacea, Iris, Asclepias, Stokesia aster, Cranesbill Geranium, Vernonia, Penstemon, and Agastache. Anchoring the center of the large garden is Magnolia grandiflora 'Little Gem'. After being hit by a falling pine in a ice storm it has rebounded nicely. 

When I put in this large mulched bed, I had a washout of mulch. I finally ended up digging a trench and making my little dry creek bed. Hardwood mulch washes downhill too easily, so I changed it to be a pine straw mulch. Part way down the hill, in the bed, is a Crypotmeria globosa 'Nana', a really nice evergreen. Dotted along the edge of the rocks of the creek bed I planted a few Pitcher plants, Sarracenia flava. The one at the top of the hill I put a berm behind it to keep water at the plant's roots for a bit longer than if there was no berm. I have had success with them in the garden so I am going to get some of the other species. 

From the front yard we will walk around the house on the low side to the back. It is almost like tunnel to get to the back. The wax myrtles, Morella cerifera,  are now small trees. They needed to be limbed up or given a rejuvenating cut (to the ground). I like the small fruit available for the birds, so they got limbed up. On left as we walk through the tunnel is a nice sized blue hydrangea, Hydrangea macrophylla, the deer seem to leave this one alone. shhhh, don't tell them it is here. In the lower left corner is a Swamp Sunflower, Helianthus angustifolius still small, thanks to the deer. Behind the sunflower is my very tall Calycanthus sp. I would call it a small tree, not a shrub!

The backyard--

from below- Looking back up to the house. This is the garden area that lacked water last year, so I have some replanting to do both this fall and next spring. These mature trees soak up all the available water. 

You can see the dry creek bed cut across the lawn area. It curves around the gardens and works well. 

Turning around to the lake you see my biggest stand of mountain mint, Pycnanthemum muticum. The pollinators love it. All day long it is covered with various bees and wasps as well as butterflies. It is a mint, so it needs to be kept in bounds. In this garden it competes with ostrich fern, Matteuccia struthiopteris, who will win?

The backyard from the deck- views from above. In the photo below, the lower left corner of the photo is the Japanese maple 'Garnet', going strong. To the left of the maple is Amsonia x 'Seaford Skies'. I have sporadically cut it back over the years, after it blooms, to keep it from reseeding. Note to self- cut it back soon! 

The garden has so many mature trees, mostly oaks and hickory. I was challenged by some fellow gardeners at the Fling to count my trees. Maybe that will be a winter project. 

 Going along the side of the house on the higher side of the property is where I play with the dog. She loves to fetch. In the winter the water runs down through the yard, making it tough for the grass to grow. Maybe by fall the grass will have filled in. The shrubs along the house include a nice stand of Deutzia gracilis 'Nikko', three Camellias and a couple hydrangeas. The deer know these hydrangeas quite well. We had a late freeze this year and knocked back all the Deutzia blooms.  The garden that borders the woods has four or more St. John's Wort, Hypericum frondosum 'Sunburst', it reseeds a bit and I have replanted those tiny seedlings further along the garden.  

From the driveway looking down the side yard, the Edgeworthia chrysantha is quite large.

Last but not least is the garden up by the road. Two springs ago I installed irrigation to this garden. It has been growing in size, any gardener worth their salt will expand gardens to the space available! The Gaillardia is sprinkled throughout this garden. Front right corner is a Black Diamond Crepe Myrtle. Lagerstroemia indica 'Black Diamond Best Red'. Waving in the breeze is Stipa tenuissima 'Ponytails' grass. 

Thanks for joining me on a walk around the yard after twelve years in one place. Additions and subtractions will be coming in the following year(s). 

©Copyright 2022 Janet. All rights reserved. Content created by Janet for The Queen of Seaford. words and photos by Janet,The Queen of Seaford.

Watching the Water Flow

Living in on a sloped lot often brings a lot of challenges. I have already diverted water flow in a few areas. The dry creek bed in the back yard was the first, you can read about it here. I did not do that one, bigger task than I knew I could handle. 

The second was in our front yard, done with my daughter Rachel's help. You will see the change in the front yard in this post done July, 2019. Since then there was a mulch change from being hardwood mulch to pine straw. The pine straw has stayed put but needs to be refreshed. Unfortunately the dry creek bed that Rachel and I put in was in bad shape. Below photo is from the bottom of the hill, soil washed downhill into the rocks and there are winter weeds galore- no clear path for the water flow.

 I hated how bad this looked and decided it was time to fix it. Doing work like this in the winter is good because it isn't so hot, but my lovely assistant isn't visiting now. I paced myself. I looked at the overall job and put it into many days of small tasks. 

Task one- get the existing rocks out. I had some help from Liebling. She likes to sit in front of where ever you are wanting to work. 

Working on the hillside with it wet under foot isn't for sissies. My plan was to put a blue tarp down along the side of the garden area and toss the rocks to it. I decided that the larger, bowling ball sized (and up) would stay in place to keep me on track that the trench didn't move off track.

After removing all the rocks the second task was to dig out the weeds, soil, and a few plants. Again I remind you that the yard was wet and the slope is steep. I lost count of how many wheelbarrow loads I did. I just dumped them into the edge of yard, under the blue cypresses. There is a sharp drop off from the grass to under the cypress. Wanting to finish, I over loaded a few times. I had one spill out of wet clay soil into the grass- what fun. 

As you see below, wider and deeper. 

As I was digging it looked like I was digging deeper in the top part of the creek and wanted to make sure the downhill slope was consistent through the course. From the top of the creek to the bottom of the creek was about three feet difference in a run of about fifteen feet. I got out the level, some string and a couple of bamboo stakes and kept myself true to the slope.

Once I was finally satisfied with the trench, it was time for the next step- landscape fabric. Thinking that I still had some in the garage from my flagstone patio installation I moved forward. You know what was next, right? Yes, an online order to Lowe's and a curbside pickup. I was working against a clock, there was rain in the forecast and I didn't want a bigger muddy mess than I already had. 

Using the larger rocks to hold the fabric in place I got to work. Tossing the small rocks back into place wasn't going as smoothly as removing them. I got out my Gorilla Tub, a Fling swag staple in my garden.  Filling the tub and bringing them six feet to the fabric doesn't seem like hard work, but after an hour or so of bending, loading, unloading, bending to place all took a toll on my back!!

Little by little, the rocks were placed in the trench, covering the fabric along the way. 

Since the new trench was wider and deeper, the existing rocks did not cover all the fabric. I have more rocks, a good deal more. Where might these rocks be? Why, they are in the backyard, at the bottom of the hill, in the woods.  Under the leaves, next to the tree, is a pile of rocks about five feet in diameter and almost a foot deep. 

Long story short, I made eight trips over two days walking a tub half filled with rocks back up the hill.  A little tweaking of the sides of the soil near the top of run made the slope a little less severe so the rocks could stack against the sides. Hand placing all the new rocks, filling in bare spots was another task that was harder as I progressed. Finally! All done! 

 View from the top- 

View from the bottom, next task will be to get some more pine straw bales and spread them.

A side by side before and after. Boy, I am glad that is done. Well, done is relative- will wait for a big rain to see how it functions. Another tweak or two might be needed, but not hauling rocks uphill for a while!

Time to rest! 

Stay tuned for more bee posts.

©Copyright 2021 Janet. All rights reserved. Content created by Janet for The Queen of Seaford. words and photos by Janet,The Queen of Seaford.

Eight Years -Showing Warts and All

It has been a couple years since I did a yearly review of the gardens. Some garden areas have been successful and others have gotten quite overgrown.  Last year was not the year for tending to the garden and it is obvious to my eye. Below are comparison photos from 2017 and 2018. If you would like to see earlier years you can see 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016.

In the photo below it is great to see how much the Japanese maple, Acer palmatum 'Glowing Embers' has grown. It is in the left side of the garden. 

2017

This past spring I added a garden along the wall, post on it later. The wall and the new garden seem to point to the 'Glowing Embers'.
It is funny how much the white Caladiums stand out along the pathway in the woods. I need to put more in next year.

2018

A little more of the center of the garden. The burgundy tree in the center is a Japanese maple- Acer palmatum dissectum 'Garnet'. The shape is finally coming back, a November 1 snowfall a few years ago took a third of the crown.

2018

Along side the house is always in a state of 'maybe it will be better next year'. The deer had found the hydrangeas last year and ate them to a nub. Around the propane tank is a very healthy stand of  Sweet Flag grass, Acorus gramineus 'Ogon'...home to many of my snakes and a favorite place for our little Liebling to "hide". In between the hose spigot and the propane tank is the A/C condensation pipe outlet. During the summer it is a constantly moist area. I like to use the downhill side of it to have my plant nursery. Any time I am pruning I will stick a few branches in the soil in that nursery area. I have had some success with a few Hydrangeas and Camellias and boxwood.

2017

This year you can see more growth on the Hydrangea macrophylla 'Madam Emile Mouillere', a white blooming mophead. Downhill from this hydrangea is a variegated one- it was also in the photo above, barely. Apparently variegated hydrangea are especially tasty to those pesky deer. Last year the hosta in front of the variegated hydrangea looked like celery stalks sticking up through the Sweet flag grass. Uphill from the Sweet Flag grass is a substantial stand of Deutzia gracilis 'Nikko', a deer resistant low growing shrub. In the spring it is very attractive if a late frost doesn't kill the blooms. The rest of the year it is a space filler.
You can see we have had to patch the turf again this spring. Slowly but surely it is filling in. We have eliminated more of the turf in the front yard.

2018

From the front door you see more Sweet Flag grass on the right side of the walkway. To the left there is a Cercis canadensis 'Ruby Falls', one side is always "pruned" by the deer and the other creeps across the walkway. A Loropetalum chinense var. rubrum 'Daruma' is in front of the front window. In some of the next photos you can see how much it has grown.

2017

This year's view shows some of the mulched front. With the dogs running out front, the trees creating more and more shade, and winter moisture killing the grass, we finally figured out that we needed to take a different tack.  So far I have added two more Japanese maples, 'Red Dragon' and 'Butterfly', a Camellia sasanqua 'Leslie Ann', and a small Cryptomeria. There is a lot more room to plant. Oh. the possibilities!

2018

Magnolia grandiflora 'Little Gem' has grown!  A few winters ago we had a pine tree hit it during an ice storm, spurring it to fill out and grow taller!

2018

Another view of the front yard, here in 2017, I have help from Liebling, our German Shepherd puppy. She will be 2 this August. See the large Loropetalum by the front by window? It was only supposed to get four to six feet tall. Each year it is cut back to the bottom of the window.

2017

Similar view this year, you can see the edge of the mulched area. See how much the Loropetalum is now? Yikes.  At the corner of the house is a Coral Bark Maple, Acer palmatum 'Sango Kaku'. It really has been a show stopper in the fall and winter with its leaf color and the coral bark.

2018

This spot is the uphill part of the front yard next to the driveway, planted with a few roses, lavender, irises, and a flowering apricot, Prunus mume 'Hokkai Bungo'. I enjoy the fragrance of the cinnamon scented blooms in the winter.

2017

This year you can see some of the lavender is missing. A peony or two have been added and a Calla lily, Zanteschia aethiopia. Some of the iris were uprooted by the marauding Armadillo. We have deer, rabbits, Armadillo, chipmunks, and voles to battle.

2018

A bright spot in the woods as you continue to walk up the driveway is an anise shrub, Illicium parviflorum 'Florida Sunshine'. I liked how it glowed in the woods so much that I bought three more, working my way up the driveway, three on the left and one on the right.

2018

A semi-new garden up at the street is shaping up. I do not have irrigation there, so the plants need to be drought tolerant and resistant to the deer that graze through. A few of the plants include Yucca filamentosa 'Color Guard', Hesperaloe parviflora, Lagerstroemia -a Red variety of the Black Diamond Crape Myrtle series, Amsonia x 'Seaford Skies', and lots of Nassella tenuissima - Ponytail Grass.

2018

Walking to the backyard from the bottom of the front hill. Viburnum tinus 'Spring Bouquet' on the left and Morella cerifera, Wax Myrtle, on the right. Not pleased with the Viburnum, going to cut them back a good bit and see if they shape up any better.

2018

In the lower part of the yard, last year's photo shows the dry creek bed we put in the year before. What a good asset to the landscape! It channels the rain water through the gardens and empties into the grassy flat land before going into the lake. The flat land has River Oats and other grasses that filter the water and slows it down....works like a charm!

2017

A little bit of a different angle in this year's photo. The elephant ears aren't making the showing they have in past years. I know I should have dug them up and divided them a few years ago. Oops.

2018

Here are the warts- last year's photo from the boat dock....lots of weeds on the right side. Almost no visible planted material to be seen.

2017

This year, even worse. Will be tackling it in the near future.  I just hate to get into that mess in the heat....and remember, there are snakes.

2018

Finally another view of the large mulched area in the front yard. My pitcher plant needs to be transplanted into a larger container, thinking it might become part of the garden. See my chicken? He is a water feature- trying to find the best place for it.

2018

Thanks for joining me on the yearly update, hard to believe we have been in South Carolina for eight years! I am glad I have been taking photos at the same time of year, year after year, to see the changes.



©Copyright 2018 Janet. All rights reserved. Content created by Janet for The Queen of Seaford. words and photos by Janet,The Queen of Seaford.