Imaginative Garden Ideas.... JFF

Updated on March 27, 2016
H.W. asks from Portland, OR
5 answers

This falls into the category of plant parenthood. :)

We have a downspout in our front yard about 3 feet from the driveway. (We disconnected our French drains years ago.) My plan is to put a path of stones from the downspout to that driveway so it can move downgrade. That said, I have a fun, quirky garden and was curious if anyone had some other ideas. Preferably with materials I could forage in town or out at the beach. (We get a lot of our favorite rocks from the beach and are a family of rock hounds.In Oregon, many of us find the Pacific too cold to swim in, but it gives us some beautiful agates, jasper and shells.)

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So What Happened?

Diane, I love the broken pots idea for a decoration sometime. I'm not sure it could hold up to the gallons of water which we get at times. :) Portland rain.I spent the morning removing most of the soil in the path.... Margie, I did leave my bluebells next to it. Just have to either hunt for some larger rocks or squirrel around for some old bits of concrete/edgers to make the 'walls' for directing the water. Thanks folks!

More Answers

T.F.

answers from Dallas on

We put in flagstone walkways around our house. My husband was super picky and we had the area dug out, laid DG as the foundation so they wouldn't move, laid the flagstone in the patterns we liked, then covered with DG again and washed to settle it.

SO far is has held up well. We don't have it set out specifically for drainage. We have underground drains that flow out to the back of our yard which is park property.

Your ideas sound nice and attractive!

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M.G.

answers from Portland on

My mom has a similar thing in her garden - made out of river rock. She has lillies around it and it's now a feature. The lillies soften it.

1 mom found this helpful

B.C.

answers from Norfolk on

You can Google "Rain Gardens" and you'll find all sorts of cool ideas.
Maybe you can do a rain chain into a beach pebble filled basin.
I saw one picture on Google Images of a guy who had a unique down spout like a curved open gutter with metal salmon on it, so when the rain is pouring down it looks like they are leaping upstream! - Very creative!

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S.F.

answers from Phoenix on

I've been saving wine bottles for 2 years to make a path in my yard and a border around my garden. Something to think about :o)

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D.B.

answers from Boston on

Have you seen these tiered gardens using broken terra cotta pots?
http://www.earthporm.com/broken-pots-turned-brilliant-diy...

I don't love the "fairy garden" label but I do like the tiered look. Maybe, if yours is on a slope, and there's a frequent flow of water, you might have some different levels using rocks or broken bits of pottery? Between what you have on hand and what garden centers might be willing to give you if you haul it away, you might do very nicely for little investment of cash.

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