DRY CREEK BED - part 2 of 2

In part one I described the process of adding a lovely dry creek bed beside the main path at our Ontario cottage.  I loved the organic process I went through. No mapping out the full vision in advance, instead seeing incremental changes that could make it better when I had time to work on it.

Once the heavy lifting was done I got to "dress" it. The stones are the bones but there was much more to be done to really highlight and take full advantage my efforts.

May 2012

• First I removed the wood ferns that were on a hump between the Periwinkle and the creek so they would not block the view
• Then I added Ostrich Ferns along the far border to highlight define the creek. The ferns were  harvested from the side of the road
• Then I added moss. 2 massive 'buttons' of beautiful, lush green moss that I harvested from the side of the road
• I am adding small ferns and Astilbe. Not sure if the ferns are young or just small, time will tell. And not sure how the Astilbe will do here, but it is less dry than where they struggled before, and if they do well I think they will fit in and look natural even though they do not grow naturally here. 

July 2012

• I also added Sundrops to the moss buttons. I hope they do not grow too big there since the reason I moved the ferns out in the first place was so they did not block the view. It is nice to have some colour though, that yellow really pops amidst the greens.

• And finally I have started to add a moss border beneath the 'canopy' of the ferns to define the edge of the creek bed even further.

So while it will mean raking the rocks and moss border each year to keep it clear of leaves I am very happy with the final result.  Or perhaps I should say the result-to-date because you never know what I may think of adding next!

Part 1 of 2
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