A dry creek bed is easy to build as long as there is a place for the water to go. We routed the downspouts from our front gutters and the overflow from our water feature to drain here. This also catches all of the run off from our meadow. At the bottom of the slope in my garden above the dry creek, we have a rain garden of plants that like full sun and wet feet in winter, yet won't die in our summer. We already had a ditch, so there was very little digging. We used one pallet of river rock that was around $275 last fall. We used permeable landscape fabric underneath to control the weeds. We don't use fabric in flower beds, BTW! It took 3 of us half a day to do this, but that was with our archaeologist son looking through the stone for arrowheads (which he found). My husband and I didn't mind the slow pace! This was created in September 2006, so the plant material is new. Sidebar: The wire edging is a temporary detterent to deer to keep them from trampling the new plants. It's working so far since everything is deer resistant

Sorry all...it's been a very busy last couple of days and this is the first chance I've had to get back on this issue. lilium -- Thanks for the info on the dogwood...yes, I suppose it could've been overly wet, but didn't seem to be so as I was digging the hole for it. Could've been a little too much clay though and might've held whatever water was there, for too long. It was very frustrating though, because small (almost wild-looking) dogwoods used to grow in that area perfectly well, but had to be cut down due to construction issues. esh -- Thanks! I will definitely take some pix sometime this week...probably Thursday or Saturday (nice weather those days). The area I want to plant in now IS at the bottom of a hill, so it does get excess runoff, But, the soil is pretty easy to work...even with some clay, it's never very difficult to dig down there...except for working around roots of the existing trees. The dogwood WAS a B&B, now that I think about it...and it is the only B&B tree I've ever planted. I did cut away the twine and pulled the burlap down several inches, but didn't completely remove it. I'll keep the B&B-vs-container thing in mind for the future. I am more comfortable with container plants, obviously. The area is partial shade-to-full shade, depending on how close to the lawn you get (partial shade near the lawn, full shade next to the existing woods). I am looking for a little of everything I think. I don't want to plant TOO many varieties, but I think it could look more natural if I don't plant just one thing, right? Maybe one flowering (I like white and yellow...hence the dogwood), something for fall color (I already have maples in the yard, so more maples wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing...but open to other ideas), and sure...something evergreen would be nice. I already have quite a few varieties in the landscape...blue pacific juniper, Parson's juniper, Saybrook Gold juniper, blue point juniper (yeah...OK, I like junipers...), and a REALLY big no-idea-what-the-name-of-it-is cedar that actually came OUT of the edge of those woods many years ago. I also have Clarissa hollies in the existing landscape, needlepoint hollies, variegated pittosporums, and kaleidoscope abelia. So, obviously, I like evergreens too! :) I'm really open to anything...my main concern is that it looks natural.

Sorry the deadnettle was such a disaster for botann and corrine! I guess it grows better(?) where you live. Where I have it hasn't overtaken the dwarf bamboo nor attacked nearby plants. But it's also pretty dry under the giant old firs. I'm surprised the bamboo is happy, but it does get a drip line, unlike all that lamium. As somebody who dug out mint roots for an hour yesterday I know where you're coming from. I followed conventional wisdom and planted it in a sunken pot, but the roots ran out the holes. Oops. Over the years I've learned many things the hard way, so perhaps I should stop giving anybody advice ;-P. I've never been very active on forums and now I'm scared to open my big mouth... I guess I must have a different Rubes - I looked it up and the picture looked right, but I picked it up at a garden club sale and am really not sure what it is. It doesn't hurt us, though. Now the pampas grass is another story. I love the way it looks but it'll tear you to ribbons :-O. One thing I have learned - garden club sales are dangerous as far as invasive plants! What somebody has a lot of is usually what they sell (or give away). I got something called poor man's orchids, and although they are pretty, they are everywhere. It's not the schizanthus - I think it's impatiens glandulifera. Same with forget-me-knots and nigella. I can't say they aren't pretty, but this time of year I'm yanking out oodles of forget-me-knots and tossing them in the compost, hopefully before they seed. In my climate they start getting powdery mildew around now anyway.

Standard practice for establishment of prairie plantings is two or three rounds of nonselective herbicide or other method of weed kill, each application spaced out sufficiently to allow a new batch of weed seeds to sprout followed by dormant seeding, followed by 6 to 8 inch mowing in first through perhaps third year when weed seedheads are beginning to form (but before they're formed enough to contain viable seeds!). This is bare minimum. If you were sold on the idea this is an easy garden to create, you were misled. Prairies are not really native plant communities where I live, but they're useful nonetheless for covering areas around our stormwater ponds. The method outlined above is one which has worked time and time again. But it really does take all that just to get acceptable results. And even then, if you've got tough invasives like reed canary grass or Canada thistle, you'll still need the backpack sprayer to do spot spraying. I think the results can be worth the trouble. But where I depart from the WildOnes, et al, is in describing this as somehow the rightful vegetation, "the" native plant community. Mostly it's not. We had mixed northern hardwoods with scattered white pine and hemlock, with swamp conifers and shrub carr in the low areas, trending towards wet meadow and marsh as things got progressively wetter. Oh well, prairie plantings are good for pollinators and do have aesthetic appeal....when functioning well. +oM