Nina’s dry stream bed in Montana

It ’s daylight 3 in Nina Eadie ’s garden in Montana . Today we ’re checking out her dry stream bed . She says,“When we bought this property , there was a rude depression some where the dry creek bed is now , and during the 4 calendar month between buy the prop and move in , Bud and I envision turn it into a dry streambed .

“ When we get here , though , we get word that my very helpful crony - in - legal philosophy , who have intercourse fiat , had satisfy it in when he dragged the property to get rid of the weeds ! So , we had a protagonist with a tractor recontour it for us , and I started filling it in with rocks from another piece of property we own nearby . I soon realize that this was go to take a REALLY long meter , so we mother a house trailer - load of Boulder from a mankind we knew on the west side who was clearing his property , and our friend with the tractor lay out them for us . Once the Boulder were determine , we had a truckload of 2″ – 6 ” rock’n’roll take in and our friend filled in around the bowlder with those ( it ’s really nice to have a friend with a tractor ! ) .

“ It is functional , but we do n’t see it often because we do n’t get that much snow here in the Bitterroot Valley . But our dimension is reasonably much at the bottom of the downhill side of the loop our theater is on , so when the snow does melt it die hard down the street along the edge of our property to a drain at the very bottom that go under the street and runs down into our field below . I ’ve gradually recontoured the land around the oddment of the driveway to airt the menstruation into the streambed , and it does flow down the streambed and at the bottom it funnels it properly into the drainage .

“ I have to concede that I did n’t really have a planting plan for the edges of the creek bed , and it ’s been a lot of trial and mistake , especially since I went from a Sunset zone 24 garden in California to a USDA geographical zone 4 garden in Montana ! It has been a challenge .

“ First of all , I wanted it to look sort of naturalistic . But genuine streamside plants get a slew of water supply , and we ’re really dry here . So , I had to find flora that would look sort of wild and natural but that would get by without a lot of extra water . I also wanted it to be pretty densely implant along the path between the stream and the fencing , but I did n’t want to hide the streambed . So , I ’ve seek to plant in pockets down into the streambed with plants that do n’t get so marvellous that they will hide the streambed . It ’s still in the process of evolving , and it ’ll be quite a few more year I ’m sure before it ’s the way we envisioned it .

“ If I had it to do over again , I would have left more room for the path between the fence and the watercourse , because it ’s hard to create a good flow on the fence side and still depart enough elbow room for the lawn tractor , which I use to hale things up and down the path and also for the golf cart , which I use to take Mom up and down the path when thing are bloom .

“ The other thing I would NEVER , EVER do again is habit weedcloth under the mulch . As a nurseryman I should have known better . flora cash in one’s chips or get too big or do n’t get along with their neighbour and inevitably you have to move them , and inevitably the spot you require to relocate them to has weedcloth ! It ’s such a nuisance , and I still have weeds ! Never again ! ”

Gorgeous , Nina , just gorgeous , and I love the action shots of the water flowing down the streambed ! Thanks so much for communion . * * * Tomorrow we ’ll visit the garden Nina forget behind to move to Montana ! * * *

It ’s almost SPRING , hoi polloi ! I know you ’re run through your photos from last twelvemonth , planning what you ’ll do differently this yr . institutionalise some of those photograph in to me![email protected ]

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The garden Nina left behind

Nina’s garden in Montana, Day 2

Nina’s garden in Montana, Day 1

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