# Weeds 'n Dry Creeks



## Darkrider (May 21, 2010)

So a few of you might remember that I made a post a few years ago asking what to do about the fact that my tunnel was flooding, and getting filled with wood chips.

The flooding been solved with a dry creek running right through the middle of the garden, crossed by two small trestles.

During it's original construction, it was made with mortal and what stone we had, and it ended up being a little...artsy with all the rocks jutting out of the mortar, which was in plain sight. The mortared dry creek has since been replaced by a "temporary" solution, using flat rocks from a local quarry and grey fines.

Five years later, I notice two problems with this "temporary" solution. 
1: Sediment from the grey fines has built up where the water leaves the garden.
2: Weeds are taking root in the creekbed.

I'd like to get this taken care of this summer or by the end of next summer. Any suggestions on how to rebuild this creek? The stone and gravel have already been removed.

Also, We had removed the weed barrier in the garden after removing the wood chips from the garden. Since then, the ground cover has grown pretty well, but the weeds have taken root in the ground cover as well. Talk about shortsightedness on my part. 

Do I just take what samples of ground cover I can, tear up the rest and lay down the barrier?
What would you recommend that I use to cover the spots that doesn't have groundcover?


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## pete (Jan 2, 2008)

Spray it all with a good weed killer.Pete


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## bmwr71 (Jan 30, 2010)

I did a dry creek for someone who had a problem with a gutter downspout on the side of a house by the back with a fall away lot causing erosion problems. As the mission was to get the water away from the house and down the hill, below the rock is pond liner material. The friend doesn't maintain it at all and after several years, weeds have found their way into the bed. Some of the weeds are vine-like spreaders so some material covering the soil doesn't make much difference to them. But also over time organic stuff like soil as well as leaves, grass mower clippings, maple seeds and such end up in the rock making new habitats for other plants. People seem to think that weed barrier is a magic forever solution and it just is not. Reminds me of noting in front of a fancy hotel weeds growing in a bed with mulch and some exposed weed barrier material. Nature is always wanting to take back the land.

Doug


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## fyrekop (Sep 20, 2011)

Doug,
As strange as it sounds I have a weed problem here in AZ and especially bad during monsoon season. What several landscapers have told me to do is scrape back to bare earth, spray well with "Ground Clear" then put down weed block material in double layers before replacing the rock. They "offered" to do it for me but I could buy several engines for they were asking.
Alan


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