A pond without water: how to make a dry stream in the country

What is a dry stream

A stream without water is an ideal solution for those who do not have the desire or opportunity to arrange an artificial pond, but really want to decorate their garden in an original way. The dry brook is a kind of imitation of the bottom of a dried stream, covered with river stones, surrounded by ornamental plants and flowers. Its obvious advantages are that the arrangement requires a minimum of time and cost, the decoration does not need complicated maintenance, it always looks great. In addition, such a landscape solution can serve as a good disguise for unattractive communications, of which there are so many in any dacha.

Video "How to make a dry stream of stone"

From this video you will learn how to make a dry stone stream with your own hands for a summer cottage.

Varieties

Dry stream is most often settled in one of three options:

• winding - the easiest option to implement, which is a winding stream that can narrow and expand in several places;
• with a branched channel - imitating several streams converging and diverging;
• cascade - located on a hill and resembles the movement of water masses from top to bottom.

Most often, stone is used as the main building element - this makes the decoration as realistic as possible: an illusion is created that the water has dried up, exposing the bottom of the stream in all its natural beauty.

To make it seem that the water has left quite recently, give the stones a wet effect by covering them with any glossy varnish.

Another common option is decorative streams of colorful plants. Try setting up a decorative flower bed that mimics an amphora with leaked contents. To do this, in the selected dream of the garden, lay any suitable container, fill it a little with earth, creating a small hill of arbitrary shape around it, and plant flowers in bright shades. As soon as the plants bloom, you will have the opportunity to admire the original landscape decoration.

How to make

When starting work on the arrangement of a dry stream, you should correctly adhere to the work technology. So, first of all, we decide on the following points: the size of the decoration, location, shape and materials.

When deciding on the size of the stream, be guided by the general dimensions of the summer cottage. An unnecessarily large trickle will be inappropriate on a modest-sized plot, and if your garden is elongated, try to equip not a stream, but a dried-up pond.

Another important point is the location. Try to make the trickle as noticeable as possible, because it is, after all, a decorative object.

When you have decided on all of the above, try to draw a decoration scheme - this will make it easier to bring the idea to life. In addition, it is important to decide how everything will be decorated - will your stream flow out of a picturesque grotto or boxwood bush, or an inverted amphora will become its source.

The foundation

Most often, decorative water streams are made from gravel or pebbles, they are sold in any hardware store.If you want, you can paint the stones in the color you like. For example, a blue tint from a distance will resemble real water. For the composition, aged in gray-blue shades, you can use slate and basalt. They are sometimes complemented with decorative glass beads, which will give a beautiful glare by reflecting the sun's rays. For a reddish stream, opt for granite, limestone or marble.

Styling

Pebbles are placed on a carefully prepared surface. Be sure to mark the boundaries of the future stream by sprinkling them with sand or pulling a rope. Now start digging a shallow (15–20 cm) trench. The bottom is tamped, leveled, lined with any material that prevents the growth of grass. Now let's move on to laying out the stones. First of all, we outline the banks with larger pebbles, and the stream itself is made of fine gravel or river pebbles.

Decor

Almost all types of plants are suitable for this type of garden decor, the main thing is to select them by size and color palette. So, on the edges of the reservoir irises, meadowsweet and swimwear look great. Ornamental onion bushes can be planted in the bends; in the same places that will be in the shade most of the time, it is better to plant crops that do not require a lot of sunlight, for example, a fern.

In addition, you can decorate the brook with anything: throw a small decorative bridge over it, place small figures of animals or thematic fairy-tale characters on the shore, you can think over and carry out special decorative lighting.

The final version of the decoration will depend only on the flight of your imagination. Sometimes it is possible to create truly original compositions that resemble whole fairytale villages or transport them to a magical forest where fairies and characters from your favorite fairy tales live. Create your own illusion of closeness to magic by arranging your garden decoration according to your personal preference. Moreover, you are already familiar with the step-by-step technology of its creation.