After completion
of a new concrete walkway, my rain chain (#3124 Copper
Bells) was a few feet away from the drainage opening
(blue arrows below). The white tube is an outlet for a
water pump, another eyesore I'd been meaning to do something
about. I thought a faux creek bed in river pebbles might
look good. Here goes!

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Step 1: Moved around
the dirt to make it slope a little from the walkway towards
the drain (this is maybe a 2" drop over 3 feet). I
packed it down by walking around on it..
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Step 2: Outlined the
area with stones. I mixed flatter stones with round ones
for a more random effect; I didn't want it to look like
a walkway. I had these around, but you can get river stones
almost anywhere.


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Step 3: Filled the
area with pebbles. I bought two 40 lb. bags of these at OSH.
Note how the drain and the white pipe are hidden with one
layer of pebbles, which won't adversely affect drainage.
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Hey, that looks
pretty good! Now I scrounged around and found three pieces
of waste glass (from a glassblowing place), and planted
a little Alyssum and Lobelia around
the edge. I sprayed it down to clean off the dirt and
it looks really nice when wet.
Total time on this project: about 4 hours.


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