Dry stream (46 photos): when the stream of stones comes to life. Dry stream with your own hands at their summer cottage: everything about the device of the "stone river" Dry stream do-it-yourself bridge

According to oriental philosophy peace, in which we live is the result of the interaction of the elements: metal, fire, water, wood and air.

Any harmonious the landscape must include all these components in order to repeat the beauty and completeness of our world.

If, when creating a landscape for a small area, you can put a metal bridge or a lantern, plant a tree, leave a place for a fire, and there is always air, then with artificial reservoir may have problems. It needs enough space and water supply, which is not always available.

However, you can use the symbol - dry stream, an element of landscape design that imitates the bed of a dried water stream: when you look at it, it seems that just recently water was running merrily along these pebbles.

While creating imitations brooks on a personal plot use various components: stones different sizes, glass and even sometimes plastic bottles. In order to fully reproduce the water landscape, bushes and flowers are planted around the river bed, growing near water bodies.

Required element - connecting structures, such as bridges and paths. They not only give the landscape a complete look, but also allow you to cross a dry stream without damaging its components.

A dry stream is created to beautify the landscape and make it complete, but can also be used as functional element. With its help you can:

Hide drainage bends and hatches, at the same time, the stream itself can serve to drain water on rainy days;
Divide the site into zones or combine various poorly combined elements into a harmonious landscape;
Visually increase space small area;
Create an extraordinary and beautiful landscape at no extra cost.

If you carefully lay a smooth, shiny pebbles and add pieces of blue glass that will shine in the sun, you can achieve the complete illusion of running water, and white large cobblestones become an imitation of thresholds and.

Note! Unlike an artificial reservoir, a dry stream will not be a breeding ground for such ubiquitous insects as mosquitoes, which very often spoil outdoor recreation.

Stages of creating a dry stream

Determining the location on the site

Mark out the contours future dry stream with sand or pegs with twine.

At this stage, you can make adjustments to your plan, move the channel, change shape, contours, bends and width of the imitation of the reservoir.

It should be borne in mind that a dry stream, according to Japanese traditions, should fit into the relief as harmoniously as a natural stream.

Source located on a hill, bed always pointing down.

Many natural reservoirs branch out, the same can be done with artificial ones: create delta sand streams or multiple diverging streams in difficult terrain.

Any stream is located below ground level, therefore, before placing stones, it is necessary to remove the top layer of soil to 30 cm, to give flow depth.

Basalt, gneiss and slate used to give the bottom a grayish-blue tint. By supplementing such a surface with glass, you can achieve an unusual visual effect, reminiscent of the appearance of running water;
Limestone and marble will dilute the gray-blue streams with light "streams", and from large stones of this type you can create an imitation of rapids and waterfalls. Limestone, due to its rough, inhomogeneous structure, will resemble vortices, and marble will complete the illusion, shining in the sun;
Granite will bring red and brown tints, from it you can build coastal "rocks".

Small areas of "shore" and "shallows" created by sand, visually soften the riverbed relief.

Note! If you cover some of the stones with fluorescent paint, then at night a "moon path" will appear on the stream.

IN registration Any "shores" and "shallows" of the artificial stream can be used plants, if only they are harmoniously combined with each other and with other elements of the composition.

When choosing herbs, you need to consider illumination places, soil type, saturation moisture and temperature.

It is best to use plants growing around natural reservoirs, but you can just plant your favorite flowers.

It is believed that the best decoration for a dry stream are short plants with narrow, straight foliage:

Chinese miscanthus, or Chinese reed. Popular decorative cereal. A young plant is very vulnerable, so it is better to plant it between large stones to protect it from the cold wind;
Helianthus (sunflower) willow. It goes well with many plants. It tolerates cold well;
Day-lily. It can grow in the shade, but blooms profusely only in a well-lit area;
Bamboo leaf grate. One of the most decorative and fastest growing bamboo species;
Cortaderia, or pampas grass. Looks great in the design of the coastline. Unpretentious, drought-resistant. Her fluffy panicles will be a wonderful decoration for the garden in winter.

The alternation of these herbs will give the shore natural outlines. The main thing is not to abuse tall plants, which, if planted along a dry stream, will simply hide it from the observer.

Perceiving a dry stream as a stream of water will help strengthen plants with inflorescences of blue shades:

Aubrieta. Very decorative, forms bright carpets in spring, sometimes blooms again in autumn. Leaves remain on the plant in winter;
Lobelia. In late summer - early autumn, it pleases the eye with small sapphire or blue flowers with whitish centers. Needs a lot of sunlight and regular spraying;
Blue fescue. One of the most decorative cereals. It goes well with dark blue pansies;
Ayuga, or tenacious. Retains its decorative effect throughout the summer season. Looks impressive in the recesses between the stones;
Bearded iris. A very beautiful and popular plant in landscape design.

Advice! Some areas of the bottom and banks can be covered with moss, this will give naturalness to a dry stream.

Japanese style in landscape design is a combination nature and man-made elements.

Therefore, there will be no dry stream to look like complete without bridges, sculptures or other details, which, meanwhile, can serve for their intended purpose.

Bridges can be used to cross the stream without hurting your legs on stones, while they visually connect different areas of the site.

Sculptures people and animals will bring the landscape to life.

You can also put or cart with flowers.

Dry stream can be combined with a real body of water... For example, use it as a drainage system to drain water from pond, which will thus become the compositional source of the dry stream.

You can do the opposite: make the stone stream flow into the pond. In this case, if the height difference is large enough, you can create a composition of dried waterfall, and during a heavy downpour, live streams of water will merrily run over it.

The main thing is to remember that the Japanese landscape is naturalness and asymmetry, everything should follow the natural landscape.

The shape of the channel and the design of a dry stream can be very diverse and depend only on your imagination. We bring to your attention several design options:

Any object of landscape design requires constant attention. It is not difficult to care for an artificial stream:

In the spring you need to take care of the plants, loosen up and fertilize soil;
Ubiquitous from time to time weeds still make their way through the stones at the bottom and banks of a dry stream, in this case they are necessary delete, although some wildflowers, such as daisies and bells, can be an additional decoration;
Growing up grass around the channel you need to periodically undercut;
Do not forget that the stream is still dry, and not real, so plants around it need to be regularly water, like any flower bed;
In autumn you need a dry stream to cleanse from fallen leaves;
Front in winter plants that are prone to freezing are necessary insulate.

Details on how to make a dry stream with your own hands are described in this video:

In landscape design, there are now a lot of different elements with which to decorate suburban areas. Designers create new and more interesting projects for the laconic improvement of the local area. One of these options is the creation of a so-called dry stream. Such a stream can be created in the shortest possible time, unlike a full-fledged reservoir, and it looks incredibly beautiful and organic in any landscape.

Characteristics and origins

Often used in landscape design are various types of reservoirs, but not every site can be used for such a design. In addition, the creation and operation of water bodies in a suburban area is always associated with additional financial and time costs, for example, for purification, construction of a system for supplying water and other components. For those who do not see the point in additional costs and long-term work on the site, the designers offer dry reservoirs.

The dry stream has become very popular in landscape design, especially in those areas that are made in the style of a rocky garden that came to us from Japan. In the Land of the Rising Sun, gardens were decorated with dry beds 700 years ago.

In eastern beliefs, it is believed that such an imitation of a source attracts positive energy to the owner of the home and affects life in the best way, as well as contributes to the achievement of harmony and well-being.

In fact, a dry stream is an imitation of a dried stream, the bottom of which is lined with stones, sand, rubble and other materials. Ornamental plants are planted along its banks.

The advantages of such a decorative dry element on the site in front of a real body of water are:

No need for constant care.
Minimum financial costs for creation.
Possibility of quick installation.
Attractive appearance regardless of the season.
Lack of attraction to harmful insects.
The ability to hide landscape defects.
Performing the function of a drainage ditch.
The ability to mask communications on the site, for example, sewer manholes, pipes, cables and others.
No restrictions on the choice of plants for planting.
Complete security.

The dry stream is able to visually enlarge the site, divide it into functional zones, and also enhance the impression of other significant landscape objects.

Dry stream options

Dry-type flows can be conditionally divided into several types:

In fact, there are tons of different subtypes of dry streams that differ in both appearance and stages of creation. We will look at the most popular ones that are used by landscape designers to decorate plots.

The source of the stream

Such a dry stream has a specially designed source place in its composition. It can be an overturned bowl or jug, rock or well. This imitation looks impressive due to its naturalness.

Sand jets

To design such a dry stream will take a lot of time and effort. The general dry stream consists of several thin jets, which are connected together. This effect is maintained throughout the entire channel. As a rule, these jets have different shades, or are made of materials that are contrasting, but combined with each other.

Important! Simulated waves, which are easy to create with a rake, can bring originality to this element of the landscape.

Merging sleeves

This composition is complex and requires additional design before creation. With proper execution, such a dry stream will look spectacular and natural. In appearance it resembles a dry stream, into which several more flow. In the same way, several sleeves are formed at once, which at a certain place merge together.

In order for a landscape element with the effect of a dried stream to turn out to be laconic and harmoniously fit into the overall design, when creating it, you must adhere to the following tips:

It is easy to care for a dry stream, the process consists mainly in loosening the soil around the plants and fertilizing them. In the summer months, it is recommended to water the stones and the plants themselves. As necessary, the channel is cleared of moss, debris, fallen leaves in order to preserve its original appearance. If weeds break through the stones, then they should be removed in time to avoid overgrowing the composition. In this case, you can not remove wildflowers, for example, chamomile. They will be an additional decoration for a dry stream. If those plants that are prone to freezing are planted near it, they should be prepared in advance for wintering.

Self-assembly

There is nothing difficult in doing a dry stream on a site with your own hands, if, of course, you take the matter extremely carefully and allocate a sufficient amount of time.

Training

Before proceeding to the formation of the composition of a dry stream, it is necessary to determine its size, shape, color and materials.

The first 2 indicators are chosen based on the area of the site. For example, if the territory is narrow and long, then an imitation of a dried lake will look better on the site. A short and wide area is best decorated with a winding stream that visually lengthens the territory. At the same time, for correct perception, the flow width should not be more than 1 meter and less than 30 cm.

The place for laying the stream is also an important component that you should pay close attention to. In general, you can arrange such a landscape decor anywhere, be it the area in front of the house, in the garden or in the backyard. At the same time, the source is located both on a hill and on a plain. If desired, you can make such a dry stream, which will zone the site when dividing. The object will fit perfectly into the territory along the path.

The most commonly used materials for creating a dry stream are pebbles and gravel. You can buy them on the construction market. If the project requires it, then the material can be painted with water-repellent paint of any color in order to qualitatively fit into the overall style of the site. So, small stones of blue color will resemble a real body of water from afar.

If the budget is not strictly limited, then it is quite possible to use basalt and slate for decoration in gray-blue tones. If you dilute the finished channel with splashes of glass balls, then when exposed to sunlight, the stream will sparkle with colors.

If you plan to move away from the classical understanding of the stream and create a red-brown stream, take granite, marble or limestone for decoration.

To create accents, it is the large stones that are used, between which the pebbles are set.

After it has been decided where the stream will be located and how it will look, it will not be superfluous to capture it on paper in the form of a sketch, so as not to get lost in the future and complete the landscape object in accordance with the creative concept.

Stacking stones

Installation of a dry stream begins with marking and surface preparation. So, the boundaries of the future stream are outlined with sand or highlighted with a rope. These contours are used to dig a trench about 15 - 30 cm deep along them. They do not make it too deep.

The bottom of the trench is leveled and compacted with high quality. Geotextile is laid on top - a material that will prevent plant growth and deepening of the trench after creating a dry stream.

Further, you can already proceed to the direct laying of stones. It begins with the design of the shores with large cobblestones. In the crevices, smaller stones are placed in a chaotic manner. After the banks, the stream itself is created in the way that fantasy requires.

If necessary, the dry stream is decorated with stones painted in different colors. You can even arrange a backlight so that in the dark, the stream plays with colors and gives the site a touch of romance and mystery.

Important! The stones are laid only in the most natural order, so that no one even thinks that the stream was created artificially.

Flower stream

Not only stones can be used to create a stream. Plants are often used for decoration. Such a semblance of a stream looks incredibly luxurious on the site. As a rule, ground cover and ampelous representatives of the flora are used as a basis. Pansies, buttercups, phloxes and lobelias work great.

Important! Such a stream will have a decorative appearance only during the flowering period of the plants that decorate it.

Selection of plants

Both a flower stream and a dry stone stream need flowers that will support the composition and make it complete. At the same time, it is important to choose plant varieties that will be optimal for this function.

Meadowsweet, swimsuits, irises and loosestrife are especially effective when planted along the edges of the stream. Places where the stream takes on a different shape are decorated with ornamental bows or small bushes planted singly.

In places where shade falls, place shade-tolerant plants such as ferns and hosts.

Important! For a dry stream, those plants that are usually used to decorate alpine slides on the site are excellent.

Flowers and grasses are usually planted in small groups to avoid heavy densities that obscure the outward beauty of a dry stream. Large spreading flowers must be combined with ground cover in order to avoid the effect of neglect of plantings.

Conclusion

A dry stream is a great alternative to a full-fledged reservoir. There are a huge number of options for decorating it on the site. You can even make a completely new and previously unknown type of such landscape decoration, just a little imagination and desire is enough.

You can't get drunk from a dried-up stream and let a boat sail along its waves. Dry Stream is an exclusively decorative element of landscape design and an excellent illustration of how fashionable philosophical ideas of the East take root in the country of Russians.

We will talk about a decorative imitation of a dry stream with small pebbles, sand and plants planted on a rocky shore.

Dry Stream Design: Who Needs It?

The Japanese create their gardens for the purpose of contemplation and solitude. Everything from flowers to stone in the oriental garden does not excite, but soothes and pacifies. Unfortunately, we are still far from the inhabitants of the East with their understanding of nature. Maybe because we are used to seeing in the nature of our native land a source of inspiration and vitality? It is clear that comparing the garden of a truly Russian person with a Japanese one is completely incorrect. But our summer residents liked many ideas. Take, for example, a dry stream. It would seem that it is so easy to make it with your own hands: choose a place, mark the channel, fill it with rubble or rounded pebbles, and plant beautiful flowers along the banks.

Yes and no. Of course, creating a dry stream is not as costly as, for example, creating a natural reservoir. But without competent planning and creative inspiration, the maximum effect of the similarity of a stream of pebbles with a real turbulent watercourse is not possible.

Let's start with the simplest dry stream scheme. She, for sure, will appeal to those who live with the dream of a beautiful garden, but are lazy to do something for this.

How to make a dry stream - step by step instructions

Diagram of the device of a winding dried up stream for the laziest

Material prepared for the site www.site

Place for a dry stream

Take a close look at the suburban area. Look for any obvious imperfections in the terrain. Here we will veil them with the help of a winding bed of a rocky stream. "Dried" water flow will visually deepen the space, mask the flaws of a small area, visually make it larger and delimit it into functional zones.

Dry stream plan

Your first step in creating an original decoration should be drawing the outline of the future stream. We will draw the borders not with a pencil, but with ordinary sand. To do this, lay a string on the ground, imitating the natural bends of the stream (the more incorrect and unexpected the turns, the more natural the water flow on the site will look). The source of the stream is best located on a slight rise.

Dry creek depth

When calculating the depth of the channel, you need to focus on its width. The ideal ratio is 2: 1. Those. if the width of your stream is one and a half meters, then its depth is 0.75 cm. (a dry stream, a photo and a diagram of which is presented below, is no more than a meter wide, the corresponding channel depth varies between 30-40 cm.

"Dig!" No, this is not a phrase from Galygin's miniature, but a soft urge to action. So, when the plan is outlined, you can proceed to digging work.

When removing the top layer of turf, it is important to make the trench walls at a 45 degree angle.

Then the canal must be cleared of weeds by carefully removing their roots, and the soil must be well tamped along inclined and horizontal planes.

Let's leave the waterproof concrete base for a real stream with living water, and our decorative moat for the lazy will be covered with dense (any!) Covering material. Construction (polymer) film, and water-permeable lutrasil, and even roofing material are suitable.

Dry bed bottom

The bottom is laid out from the bottom of the channel, which must be covered with a layer of crushed stone or expanded clay (5 cm) and covered with sand. And only then begin to lay the stream with stones of different sizes and shapes.

Dry Stream Stones

In our scheme (you can see its photo below), we suggest using large cobblestones, medium and small pebbles of a gray-blue hue. Basalt (rock of volcanic origin), shale (excellent in texture and color) or gneiss (metamorphic, coarse shale) are suitable. The stones in the artificial stream can be opened with a layer of varnish, making them "wet" or painted with a waterproof paint of blue, azure or light blue that shimmers in the dark.

Stacking stones

The place from which the water "flows" should look like a rock. Select the largest stones and build an embankment (places where the stones do not fit together should be filled with fine gravel).

Form the effect of a mountain stream from flat pebble stones. Place more convex stones around the edges.

Use the remaining large boulders to equip the coastline (it will look more natural if one coast turns out steeper, "rocky", and the other is shallow). Those. concentrate all large stones on one side of a dry stream, and decorate the other with smaller coarse stones.

Scatter small pebbles in the "shallow water".

Create a "stormy rushing current" with the help of a flat pebble laid on the edge.

In the middle of the "water" channel, you can put a hewn boulder, and with pebbles around it create the illusion of a "whirlpool".

The crevices of the stream can be filled with medium and large naked.

With the help of stones of a darker color, we create a feeling of depth in the stream, light pebbles, glass or plastic granules - water excitement.

The stones in a dry stream must be laid out so that no one doubts that they have been lying here all their stone life.

Are you afraid that the stones will be washed away by a strong stream of rainwater? Then in small portions fill the sole of the crushed stone with cement-sand mortar and "sink" the stones directly into it.

A bridge made of a solid natural block is the most suitable option for a dry stream in the country. Do you want a more functional means of crossing? Take an ordinary log or make a wooden bridge with your own hands. Or even better - arrange a real ford through the seething mountain stream, spreading suitable stones along the surface of the stream.

Plants for the coastal zone. The main thing here is not to overdo it with decorating the banks, otherwise the dried drain will turn into a flower bed. When choosing shrubs, cereals and flowers, it is important to take into account the composition of the soil on the site, its illumination, and the thermal and humidity regime.

Do-it-yourself dry stream - choosing plants

Natural flowering carpet along the edges of a dry stream can be obtained by using groundcover and herbaceous plants on the site. Among the flowering ones, it is best to choose species with juicy blue, purple and blue shades of flowers. They will not leave the stream impersonal in early spring and late summer, such perennials as the bell of the portenchlag, brunner large-leaved (forget-me-not), subulate phlox, creeping tenacious, aubrieta, lobelia, muscari, thick-leaved berry, bryozoan, primula, bluebear , silvery lily of the valley, geychera, Siberian iris, etc.

Making out a dry stream of stones and flowers, it is impossible to do without daylilies, grasses, bamboos and reeds. Succulent, long-narrow leaves of the listed plants create an optical illusion of wild thickets on the shores of natural reservoirs. The most popular are: miscanthus, blue fescue, cortaderia, sedge, hosta, calamus, hosta.

If you plan to break a large, voluminous stream of conifers, then feel free to plant dwarf species of junipers, mountain pines, spruces and firs on the rocky shore - these plants grow well for a dry stream on loamy or light sandy soil.

Low deciduous shrubs must be selected with extreme care. Otherwise, in the fall, you will not unbend to remove the fallen leaves that will get stuck between the stones. Have you already purchased a garden vacuum cleaner for this purpose? Well then, be sure to plant a cotoneaster and barberry next to the stream - these plants will amaze you with bright colors all four seasons in a row.

Dry streams will be especially decorated with annual bulbs: lilies, decorative bows, daffodils, tulips and hyacinths.

Dry stream diagram

"Leaf grate bamboo" of gray-green color
Motley "bearded iris"
Airy-tender "lobelia"
A real decoration of the garden - "creeping tenacious"
Unpretentious "poskharsky's bell"
A bright carpet from "Aubrieta hybrids"
"Brunera large-leaved" with variegated broad-heart-shaped leaves
Evergreen "schiloliferous bryozoan"
Red-leaved "creeping tenacious"
Dense thickets of "arundo reed"

Dry stream in landscape design

When creating a dry trickle with your own hands, you need to act in stages. You do not have to worry that it will be difficult to care for a dry river bed in the future. Yes, you will have to weed it, destroy anthills under the stones and water it regularly. But if you do all this regularly and do not leave the stream unattended for a long time, caring for it will not give you much trouble.

For your information. A graceful dry stream, aft of its main decorative function, performs the following important tasks in arranging a garden:

provides a direct drain of storm water (a kind of drainage system in a Japanese-style garden);

retains some of the moisture under the stones, which allows the plants of a dry stream to be watered extremely rarely;

serves as a border between various landscape zones;

reduces soil erosion;

visually enlarges the area of the garden.

Advice. Flowers can be used instead of pebbles. But a dry stream of flowers is decorative only during flowering.

Conclusion

The skillfully designed decorative dry stream makes it feel like it has just dried up and just recently had water in it. Wait a bit and maybe your handiwork will bring the occasional rain back to life?

Dry stream - stock photos and pictures for inspiration

Dry Stream is a very profitable idea that has the following advantages:

minimum material costs;
saving water;
ease of care;
fast erection;
allows you to hide the defects of the terrain;
easy dismantling.

Materials and tools for construction

A dry stream in the country with your own hands can be made in 2-3 days. This will require:

Becheva or sand for marking the channel.
Stones of different sizes (pebbles, cobblestones, gravel, natural stones of different shapes).
Geotextile or lutrasil as a substrate for stones (can be replaced with a polymer film or a thin layer of concrete).
Shovel.
Rake.

Read the rules for planting and caring for the creeping tenacious.

Step-by-step instructions for arranging a dry stream

Before embarking on the construction process, markings are made with a string or sand path at the place of the "flow" of the dry stream. This technique allows you to choose the best channel shape for a given site.

We outline the contours of the stream and dig a trench

Then a ditch 15-30 cm deep is dug along the planned path. The soil is leveled with a rake and lined with lutrasil or geotextile. These materials "breathe" and allow moisture to pass through and will prevent weeds from growing between the stones of the stream.

We cover the dug moat with special material

Now you can start laying the stones. First, the "banks" are drawn up, then the edges are propped up with rubble stone from the inside, medium and large pebbles are used to fill the crevices, and the whole channel is covered with small pebbles.

Putting stones in the stream

The curved shape of the stream allows you to visually increase the space, so this option is best used for small summer cottages.

How to create beautiful stone compositions in a dry stream

A dry stream in landscape design, if improperly designed, may look too cumbersome, so you should know some of the intricacies of its arrangement:

Blue stones and glass will create the illusion of water in the stream

a stone stream with an unequal channel width looks more graceful and natural;
stones of unequal sizes will emphasize any landscape more expressively;
to achieve a bluish-gray hue, you need to use combinations of basalt, shale and gneiss;
limestone, granite and marble give the composition a reddish-brown hue;
glass beads and granules scattered along the riverbed will help create the illusion of water. For the same purpose, you can use stones or concrete balls painted with mirror paint;
flat coarse pebbles are used to reproduce the effect of the current, and the coastline is laid out from larger boulders;
irregularities in the landscape can be disguised as waterfalls using stones of light shades;
clear boundaries spoil the natural appearance of a dry stream, so they should be made more "blurred" and heterogeneous.

on the site: where to start.

Learn about the plant rejuvenated, learn about its planting and care in.

What flowers are used to decorate dry streams

The final touch in the design of a dry stream is decorating it with plants. Any flowers and ornamental shrubs will perfectly cope with this task, the main thing is that they harmoniously fit into the created landscape.

Plants with blue flowers better than others convey the atmosphere of flowing water, and therefore they are most often used to decorate dry streams.

Plants for decorating a dry stream:

creeping tenacious;
large-leaved forget-me-not;
obrietta;
large-leaved bruner;
lobelia;
bearded iris.

The composition can be successfully supplemented with pampas grass, Chinese reed, plantain sedge, hosta and daylily.