Better Late Than Never...A River Rock Bed

I did this project several months ago, but it was such a clever solution for our backyard flooding problem that I thought I'd share it!

I had a photo of our flooding issue during a storm, but after switching phone providers shortly after moving here, I lost my photos on my phone.

So I will just describe it the best I can.

Imagine this whole area in this photo under an inch or two of water:

Yes, that about sums it up.

It is apparent there is a problem (a hole, a clog) with our gutters because virtually NO water comes down the downspout when it rains. The rain simply pours over the sides of the gutter. The level of the yard is lower in this area and the sidewalk sorta traps all the water right here, plus there is a step up to the patio on the right. I was hoping to have a cute flower bed here, but after the observing the first few rainstorms roll through, I realized it would be a waste of time to attempt to grow anything. The grass thrives, however; we have the most lush grass growing here! Zorro loved it during his "photoshoot".

This project was definitely from awhile ago - just look at baby Dukie who was "helping" nearby!

Here's What You Will Need:

Newspaper (each layer will need about 4-5 layers)

6-8 bags of River Rock (or some sort of medium stone or lava rock)

Here's What You Do:

Put a thick layer of newspaper down, overlapping the edges by several inches, just like my flower bed tutorial. Don't be skimpy on this step, because this will be blocking your weeds AND grass from growing through, both of which are very stubborn!

Then, pour your river rock on top of the newspaper. You will need enough so that NO newspaper shows through. I had such a small area to fill, and I used 6 bags. But I probably cold have used a bit more. Especially if you have a puppy who likes to dig in it! :)

Fast forward about 10 minutes:

Looks great! No more having to get the scissors out to cut the grass in the corners where the mower couldn't reach! (Yeah, we need a string trimmer!)

It looks nice, low cost, minimal effort, and it would be so easy to add potted plants to the area to add some greenery back! Now that I'm thinking about it, I probably don't need that ... downspout splash...(I just had to look up what you call that thing) seeing as how no water even comes down the downspout!

Zorro, my cat-dog, approves.