Create a realistic dry creek bed - includes other landscaping ideas

Sunset, Sept, 1996

We're all more regimented than we think. That's why our attempts to simulate something - such as a dry creek bed - are so rarely convincing.

Artificial creek beds tend to be overdesigned and overarranged, says Owen Dell, a California landscape architect who specializes in dry creek beds. The tendency is to push all of the big boulders neatly to the edges, give each its own space, bury all to a uniform depth, and then wonder why our creation has all the poetry of an irrigation ditch. But even a small-scale dry creek bed running across a front yard can - if done well - convey the ferocity of the real thing.

The secret to making a realistic creek bed, says Dell, is learning how to think like a river. The one pictured above, which Dell designed for Lloyd and Jeanne Gibbs of Solvang, California, illustrates his point. Dell recommends visiting some natural creek beds, especially ones similar in scale to what you want, before simulating one. Notice what the force of water does to the rocks. In nature, pebbles get washed toward shore, and boulders too heavy for the current to move end up in the middle of the stream, not the reverse. Rocks get piled on top of each other in a mad jumble or lie half-buried in silt.

When you understand how the violent force of water shapes natural creek beds, says Dell, you are ready to mimic that "chaos" in your own garden.

As with any landscaping project, start with the major players. Site the largest rocks mentally. Turn them around in your mind before having them forklifted into place. Then do the same with midsize and small rocks. In general, try to put things down the way they were picked up, advises Dell.

LANDSCAPING SOLUTIONS

Sweet peas twine on a cypress arch

As fanciful as it may appear, the arch of Italian cypresses framing the approach to Tim and Marguerite Lindsay's home in Sunland, California, was chosen for practical reasons. The arch frames a view of the nearby San Gabriel Mountains.

Tim chose a green living arch over one made of wood or iron because it would be softer-looking and cost considerably less. It took about one year for the pair of 5-gallon trees to grow tall enough to be tied together at the top with 12-gauge copper wire. Pruning maintains the arch's form and keeps it looking neat.

The arch also provides a platform for sweet pea vines. "I needed a sunny area to grow sweet peas, and I thought an arch could do double duty supporting them," says Tim. When the sweet peas have run their course, he plants cardinal climber (Ipomoea quamoclit), a summer annual vine. Any lightweight vine could be substituted for sweet peas in this scenario. But more vigorous vines like common morning glory (I. tricolor) are too heavy for a living arch to support.

CONTAINER CULTURE

Ornamental asparagus steals the show

Some container plantings are carefully planned for a one-season show. Others evolve and change form through the years, much as people change appearance. The pot pictured at left falls into the latter category.

About five years ago, Sunset gardener and floral designer Kim Haworth planted the 22-inch pot with a Myers asparagus, some ivy, and sweet alyssum. In the following years, different gardeners added other plants and the annuals came and went, but the ornamental asparagus remained at center stage.

Last fall, the container came into its prime, strutting a striking combination of textures and colors. The fernlike lime green foliage of the Myers asparagus poked out among tall orange snapdragons; purple alyssum and purple trailing lobelia tumbled down one side of the pot. The planting positively glowed, especially in the low golden light of late afternoon.

Myers asparagus makes an ideal container plant that can be grown outdoors year-round in Sunset climate zones 12 and 13 and as an indoor-outdoor plant in colder climates.

GARDEN ART

A showcase for birdhouse folk art

Some birdhouses aren't strictly for the birds. The ones that line the wall of Linda Terhark's garden, shown above, function almost exclusively as decorative art. Terhark collected them during her travels. "They're one of my favorite forms of folk art," she says. "Each one is handmade by a different craftsperson, and they're made to be outdoors."

Altogether, 18 birdhouses are on display in the garden. Each one hangs from an eye screw or hanging clip that slips onto a nail driven into the wall. This mounting method makes it easy to take down the birdhouses - to rearrange or maintain them, or to clean out old nests. While these houses aren't arranged to attract avian tenants, every year a family of birds, usually swallows, nests in one or two while the rest stay vacant.

Terhark created a shadow-box effect by hanging the birdhouses in the open spaces between, beside, and above lattices mounted to the wall. The lattices are made of cedar 1-by-1s.

You can find handcrafted birdhouses in many garden boutiques and specialty catalogs. One good mail-order source is Smith & Hawken; call (800) 776-3336 for a catalog.