Landscape design gained recognition and spread in the late twentieth century, primarily in the densely populated countries of Western Europe, where very few areas of wilderness remained. Landscape design includes the design and landscaping of land plots surrounding modern buildings, the creation of water decorative elements (fountains, artificial lakes, streams), the creation of ensembles of planted plants (flower beds, paths, ridges), etc.
For transformation landscape design There are a lot of techniques for modern summer cottages and garden plots. This includes landscaping the area, creating artificial ponds, effectively lighting the area, introducing various decorative elements (benches, gazebos, bridges, various decorative figures, landscape lamps, etc.). All this allows you to create an individual and unique area for walking and relaxing on the territory of your dacha or country house.
There are many offers from masters for landscaping land plots and creating original landscape designs, but if you have free time and the desire to improve your plot yourself, you can test your strength in creating simple landscape design elements, for example, making a dry stream in your country house.
A dry stream, unlike real bodies of water (pools, lakes, streams), is an imitation of the bottom and channel. This element of landscape design came to us from the Japanese islands. The Japanese respect the water element, which evokes associations with the purity of life and the transience of time. In Japanese traditions, this element of landscape design is very popular, especially in those areas where it is impossible to recreate real water compositions. A dry stream evokes associations with water element, it seems that the water in the source dried up only recently, and the very first rain will revive the stream and fill it again. It is not for nothing that a dry stream occupies its rightful place in landscape design. There are many design options for how to make a dry stream in the country.
Strengths of Dry Creek :
- Cost savings, relative cheapness of work and the ability to make a dry stream bed with your own hands, without using the help of expensive landscape design specialists;
- Minimum time for construction (carry out basic work in 2-3 days);
- Easy maintenance in the future, unlike a real pond. Must be destroyed promptly weeds and monitor the support of the channel shape;
- The ability to use any plants you like for design and decoration, not necessarily moisture-loving ones, as is the case with a natural reservoir;
- Complete safety for children. In addition, there are no mosquitoes, which love to live in places with high humidity.
How to choose the shape of a dry stream
When choosing the shape of the bed of a future dry stream, be sure to take into account the terrain. The source should be located on a hill, the channel, as in the natural version, should run from top to bottom, narrowing in places and widening in others.
The winding shape of the channel visually expands the space; the area will seem much larger than in reality.
You can think of a place from which the stream originates, for example, a well of stones on a hill, or a crevice in the rock from which the stream “flows.” At the source, a tilted jug will look good, from which water appears to flow out, as if your dry stream begins there.
An interesting landscape design option can be created if you figure out where the stream flows. This could be thickets of bushes at the end of the site, behind which it is impossible to trace the further movement of “water,” a fence or some kind of decorative building. The main thing is that your landscape design looks natural, like a natural formation. Channel braiding, channel merging, and other options can also be used.
The combination of a dry stream and a wooden bridge in landscape design looks very beautiful. Garden sculptures, wooden mushrooms, stone masonry and others are used as additional decorative elements of landscape design.
Materials for floodplain and dry stream bottom
To fill the bed of a dry stream, you will need large boulders, cobblestones, and small pebbles. A beautiful combination of colors and textures of the stone bed will allow you to create unique compositions that complement any landscape design plan.
It is advisable to use local stone options in your design so that the stream is in maximum harmony with environment. Large stones are usually laid along the banks, and the riverbed is filled with small pebbles. To create a flow effect, flat stones are used.
To add naturalness to the landscape solution, you can make a stream with gray-blue shades if you use basalt or slate. Ponds made of granite, limestone and marble have red-brown tints. If desired, the design of the stones can be enhanced with waterproof paint or varnished, shimmering in the sun, they will create the illusion of a flowing source.
Sequence of work when creating a dry stream
Having decided on the landscape design of the future dry stream, it is necessary to mark the channel on the site. You can do this with sand, or stretch a rope along the intended stream. It is more convenient to work with sand, the composition looks natural, it is easy to make corrections by outlining a different contour. The next step is construction.
You need to dig a small pit along the bed of the future stream; the ratio of the width and depth of the bed should be approximately 2:1. If the width of your stream in some place is 1 m, then the depth of the pit in this place should be 0.5 m. Level the surface of the pit with a rake.
It is necessary to put some kind of covering on the bottom, for example, geotextiles, which allows water and air to pass through, so that weeds do not grow in the future stream. You can also concrete the bottom, use a polymer film or roofing felt. If you are afraid that water will erode your stone bed over time, you can concrete the bottom layer of pebbles into the bed, and add more stones on top so that the bottom is not visible.
Then you can lay stones on the surface, starting from the banks. Large cobblestones are placed along the edges, interspersed with small pebbles. To imitate waterfalls and rapids, the brightest and lightest stones are used. You can also place glass pebbles at the bottom of the riverbed to imitate water.
Flat stones - plasters, placed on their edges, create an imitation of the movement of water. The same effect can be achieved using stones of blue shades. If you place a boulder in the middle of a “water” channel, you can use pebbles to create the illusion of a “whirlpool” around it. The main thing is that the composition of stones looks natural.
A good addition to a dry stream would be a bridge. If you have a large solid stone on your site, you can lay it across the stream so that the “water” seems to run under it. If you have the desire and the materials, you can make an imitation of a bridge from wood, and do it yourself. A wooden bridge and a dry stream in landscape design will go well together.
The next step in creating a dry stream is decorating the banks with plants. When selecting them, it is necessary to take into account the climate of your region, as well as the composition of the soil on the site, the presence sunlight, humidity and temperature.
Among flowering plants, preference should be given to species with blue, light blue, and purple flowers. You can also plant perennials such as loberia, primrose, periwinkle, silver lily of the valley, etc. Plants that naturally grow along the banks of reservoirs look good: sedge, calamus, blue oatmeal, lilies, cereal herbs. The streams will be decorated with tulips, daffodils, hyacinths, and lilies.
You can add individuality to your landscape design by planting conifers along the rocky banks of a dry stream—dwarf species of junipers, fir, and mountain pines. Light sandy or loamy soils are well suited for them.
Planting shrubs with small leaves must be approached with caution, since during autumn leaf fall you will have to pick out fallen leaves from your stream that get stuck among the stones. If you purchased a garden vacuum cleaner to remove leaves, you can safely plant dogwood and barberry bushes near your dry stream; a beautiful landscape due to the changing color of the leaves of these wonderful shrubs will be provided to you all year round.
Dry stream care
Caring for a dry stream usually does not present any particular difficulties. It will be necessary to periodically weed, remove weeds, and water the planted plants. It should be remembered that ants like to live under stones; you will also have to get rid of them regularly so that your dry stream does not turn into an anthill over time.
But, in addition to its decorative functions, a dry stream also performs important tasks of landscape design:
- Serves as a kind of drainage system that ensures the outflow of rain and flood water from your site;
- Helps retain moisture under stones, saving you time and reducing the frequency of watering planted plants;
- Visually divides the site, allowing you to emphasize individual areas of landscape design;
- Helps reduce soil erosion;
- Visually expands the territory of your garden plot.
Calculation of pebbles to create a dry stream in landscape design
To calculate the approximate volume of pebbles needed to create a dry stream, you need to take several measurements. After you have decided on the path of the future stream bed and marked it on the site using sand, use a tape measure, measuring tape or rope to measure the length of the stream in meters. Then indicate the average width of the channel (approximately 50-80 cm), convert to meters (0.5-0.8 m). The thickness of the pebble layer of your future riverbed will be approximately 5 to 8 cm, that is, 0.05-0.08 m. Now you need to multiply the resulting values.
A dry stream is an excellent alternative to an artificial watercourse, which requires a lot of financial and time investment both in creation and maintenance. At the same time, an imitation of a flowing stream decorates the garden plot in the best possible way and can carry a functional load. Is a person far from landscape design able to independently figure out how to make a dry stream with his own hands, the photo of which he liked? Or is this an art accessible only to professionals?
How to make a dry stream yourself
In fact, this decorative element does not require special knowledge to translate into reality. There are several subtleties that should be taken into account when arranging the future highlight of a summer cottage. Everything else will follow with a sufficient level of motivation and sense of proportion. IN as a last resort, if the end result is not satisfactory, the dry stream can be easily reorganized and even moved.
The structure of a stone watercourse and its advantages
One of the most difficult tasks is to create the illusion that water flowed here just recently. Otherwise, the result may look like an awkward pile of stones. To prevent this from happening, it is worth studying the structure of a dry stream - in this case, you can make it as close as possible to the original one with your own hands.
- The source of a mountain stream, as in nature, should be on a small hill, as similar to a rock as possible. It is optimal if there is a hill on the site, which can be decorated with stones. If the surface of the site is flat, several large boulders can be placed on it.
- The bed of the dry watercourse is winding - in different places can expand and contract sharply. Using this feature, you can visually expand the space. To do this, it is important to choose a good location for a dry stream on the territory. There is a classic pattern: than smaller area personal plot, the more elegant the shape of this decorative element should be.
- The mouth is the logical conclusion of a stone stream, creating the appearance of the presence of a real body of water. Alternatively, you can combine a small dry stream and a pond made of the same stone and surrounded by greenery. Unlike a stream, a pond has clearly defined boundaries that can be decorated with marsh plants.
A well-organized dry stream, being a great place to relax, simultaneously veils the imperfections of the relief and zones the space. With its help, it becomes possible to disguise utility lines while leaving them easily accessible. Another undeniable advantage is minimal maintenance, which consists only of maintaining the cleanliness and shape of the riverbed.
Preparatory work for creating a simulated stream
Before making a dry stream in the country, it is recommended to draw several versions of it with different directions, shapes and widths with river sand. Based on the planned size of the future stream, you need to select the appropriate stones in advance. Landscape designers consider blue-gray and gray pebbles, blue or blue-green fine gravel, as well as gneiss, slate and basalt to be the most suitable materials. Marble slabs and granite boulders will help add color accents and add solidity to the landscape.
A ceramic flower pot or jug (perhaps artificially aged or simply worn out) will receive a second life if it is installed horizontally at the source. Among the stone streams, scatterings of colored crystals made of safety glass or acrylic sparkling in the sun look wonderful.
Technique for constructing a decorative element
At this stage, it is necessary to dig a channel for the future watercourse. There is no need to make it deep - a channel that is too concave will look unnatural. It is enough to remove the top layer of soil (15–30 cm) and clear the surface of the turf. The resulting ditch should be compacted tightly and protected from weed germination using any water- and breathable material, for example, geotextile or lutrasil. You can also use construction film and even roofing felt.
Filling the stream should begin by laying out the largest stones, which are usually located along the banks. After this, the entire channel must be covered with sand, expanded clay or small crushed stone. Then you can start laying out the stones different sizes and forms. To determine how to make a stone stream in the form turbulent stream or shallow waters, it is recommended to pay attention to a few tricks:
- flat pebbles placed on edge and located in the same direction as the banks create the effect of a fast current;
- if you place a massive stone in the middle of a stream or pour a sandbank, and place pebbles around it edgewise, you will get a “whirlpool”;
- dark-colored stones create the illusion of depth, so they should be used closer to the middle of the riverbed;
- Accordingly, light-colored filler is suitable for arranging shallows and shores;
- You can make a stone stream more natural by making a crossing in the form of a wooden bridge, an ordinary log or a concrete slab.
Video: dry stream options
Decorating the banks with plants and stylized figures
You can endlessly improve a stream made of stones with your own hands. One of the most favorite methods of decoration is landscaping the coastal line and a small pond. The type of plants depends only on the imagination of the homeowners, but you should definitely take into account the location of the reservoir, the composition of the soil and the humidity regime. It is necessary to combine perennials with different periods flowering - this will fill the stream with colors and make it expressive at any time of the year.
Armed with spectacular photos, a dry stream of stones can be built in just 2-3 days. If your own skills are not enough, it is advisable to turn to professional designers who will help you avoid mistakes and uniformity. However, if a person has a desire to try himself in a new business, it is quite possible to do it on his own, so that later he can get maximum pleasure from contemplating his own creation.
The dream of any summer resident or owner of a private house with adjacent territory is to have a natural spring water. Therefore, if you are the happy owner of a piece of land along which even a small stream flows, then you are incredibly lucky. In this case it is not necessary once again spend money on creating artificial reservoirs, but all that remains is to carefully consider how to improve the bed of a natural stream so that it not only looks beautiful, but is also as functional as possible.
How to beautifully design the water bed of a stream
Before you begin to improve and design the landscape around the stream, you should observe its “behavior” in different seasons. After all, it is quite possible that a thin, barely murmuring ribbon of water during periods of intense rain will turn almost into a raging river.
A beautifully designed and well-groomed stream in the country or near the house will undoubtedly become a favorite vacation spot in hot weather
This point should be taken into account in the process of designing, selecting and placing decorative elements, so that they are not simply washed away by the flood during the first downpour, wasting all efforts.
Making artificial thresholds with your own hands
If land plot is located on a slope, and the stream flows down it, then it can easily be turned into a small copy of a mountain stream, providing the bed with homemade rapids made of boulders and stones. Thanks to them, it is easy to create beautiful cascades or waterfalls. The more relief the terrain and the greater its changes, the greater the number of rapids that need to be equipped.
It should be taken into account that sharp steep rapids will inevitably lead to constant noise falling water, for this reason, if the source is located in close proximity to the house, it is better to make them stepped.
Artificial rapids in the riverbed are usually constructed using carefully selected and correctly placed stones of different sizes, held together with cement mortar.
Emphasis on the source of the natural key
If a stream flows on a flat area, but does not just cross the site, but originates from it, then special emphasis can be placed on the source from which the water flows. One of possible options– dig a small pond around a natural spring with a diameter of no more than 1.5 m and a depth of about 0.5–0.8 m, and decorate it with aquatic and moisture-loving coastal plants, such as water lily, water lily, calamus, trifoliate, cattail , plantain chastuha, arrowhead.
In this case, aquatic plants are planted directly on the bottom of the reservoir at a depth necessary for successful vegetation, and coastal plants strengthen its edges.
Proper decoration and landscaping of the banks
There are many ways to improve a stream by decorating its banks. An indispensable attribute in in this case There are stones of different sizes, shapes and shades. Smooth polished pebbles with even smoothed edges give the flow more calm and tranquility, while rough boulders with sharp, as if broken, edges make the stream aggressive.
Landscape designers advise choosing several large picturesque stones of unusual shapes as central decorative elements, laying them in four to five places on the shore on top of small pebbles, crushed stone or moss. You should not use shale or sand rocks, as they quickly lose their attractive properties due to constant interaction with water. appearance.
You can also improve the stream on the site with the help of vegetation that loves constant proximity to a large amount of water. But before planting it, you should carefully study the already growing flora, so that the stream does not get lost behind the various greenery, and the overall composition does not lose its appearance, becoming like unkempt thickets.
Typically, perennials with an increased need for moisture are planted on the banks. These could be Kampfer's irises, blooming throughout the spring-summer season, primroses, variegated golden-yellow southern reeds, black sedge, the dark inflorescences of which look amazing against the background of young bluish leaves with a metallic sheen. Bushes and small trees with a “weeping” crown hanging over the water look very advantageous, under which you can install a small bench for rest.
Construction of fords and bridges
If the stream is wide enough so that both an adult and a child can easily cross it, it is worth thinking about creating a ford or a small bridge to cross to the other side.
A ford is made if the depth of the stream is insignificant. To do this, large flat stones with a rough surface are laid across the current at a distance of no more than one short step from each other. In other cases, there is no way to do without a bridge, which will perform both a practical and a decorative function. If the stream is long, then it is advisable to make several of them in different places in the garden plot.
Bridges can be built from boards, logs, artificial stone, metal, triplex and others modern materials, providing them with railings for greater safety. The main thing is that the appearance of the structure ultimately fits organically into the overall design and style of the entire personal plot.
Ennoble the natural water source, of course it is possible with my own hands, but first you should still consult with specialists in the study of groundwater, designers and landscape designers, since the slightest incorrect intervention can cause swamping of the area around the stream and lead to a number of unnecessary problems that cannot be solved on your own.
Examples: stream on the site
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