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

Yeah, it's been months, but I thought I add my experience. I am using 15 year landscape fabric that was installed 2 years ago. I too noticed that the water beaded up on it and mostly rolled off, depending on the slope. I figured that I had a lot of work to do and no one complained too badly about the stuff so continued with the installation. Over the fabric I put a few inches of rock, which is lots of work but I have hardly needed to revisit the beds at all. My perennial plants are all receiving sufficient water (they're growing and alive), there are no lakes forming, and everything is as expected. I admit that I was concerned initially about all the work that it took to prepare and complete the beds and that they might not receive any water... Though, not to worry friend, it'll be fine. Lay the stuff down, cut the X where the plant will poke through, and enjoy the minimal effort to maintain your beds. In the fall I do walk through with a vacuum/blower to remove as much organic material as I can. Takes only minutes and I'm sure it'll help keep the beds looking pristine. Enjoy!

A landscaper used the weed cloth in my father-in-law's shrubbery beds and it was a nightmare! the weeds just germinated in the mulch on top of the cloth and sent tiny roots through the cloth into the soil. they were impossible to pull. I will never use the stuff. I just put down 10 to 15 layers of newspaper covered with wood chips. Those will work in vegetable or perennial beds and will smother the existing weed seeds. Every year, I add another layer of wood chips as the newspaper and older chips break down and enrich the soil. If weeds to appear, they're easy to pull. The man who cut down some trees for us has a good chipper and will deliver chips by the dump truck load for free because it saves him a trip to the landfill and a tipping fee. A lot of people won't use wood chips because they use up nitrogen as they decay, but if you let them sit for a couple of months before you spread them it's not a problem. I sometimes don't even do that and have not noticed that the plants have suffered from it. Also consider using a preemergent herbicide to keep the weed seeds from germinating. Preen is the easiest to find, but the garden stores may have others.

treebarb, I've been in love with Abies concolor for decades; have never owned one. I'll go peek at Lowe's. We haven't made a decision yet, family stuff in Florida happened and we just returned home. Do you think the shallow roots would be a problem? We don't want it falling over in the wind and hitting the house (but of course on a 3-foot Lowe's tree we'd not have to worry about that for a while)! The neighbor's trees are not any wind protection. One is at the very front of her house and the other smaller juniper is between our houses. The prevailing winds are straight up the slope much of the time, so whoever's out back is going to have to withstand 50+ up to highest measured at 76 mph. Doesn't happen all the time, of course, but I'd say 20% of the year at least. I just looked up Bosnian pine: "tolerant of severe wind exposure". I like its looks online, and it sounds like the ticket to me. Thanks for your helpfulness. I very much appreciate it.