Dry Creek Bed Look

I am pretty certain I won't be getting any "real" stream in my garden. I have lots of places to put one with actual water, but it's a big expensive project. It also has lots of maintenance headaches. So here's the alternative. It's called the "Dry Creek Bed" look and I am not sure I am sold on it, though this is the second year and it is beginning to look better. But my husband needed a drainage area so the water doesn't run off onto our high maintenance crush-granite driveway. When it pours, the dry creek actually is a wet creek, but it doesn't last long.  

If you're interested in doing this, there are lots of examples. The first two are different views of our dry creek bed. The last picture is one I like because it has boulder-size rocks with the smaller rocks/pebbles. 

It is a shady area (under white pine) so I've added hostas, ferns, lady's mantel, pink astilbe, wild ginger, pink wild geranium and a variety of sedum/stonecrops that trail out onto the driveway. The flowering blue plants are forget-me-nots. 

Taken from Landscape Kate