How to: make a dry creek bed

Garden Clinic Club member Colin Finch, from Ingleburn NSW, heard us talking on the radio about the pocket-sized dry creek that our native plant expert Nick Susnjara has created at the entrance to Beecroft Village Gardens.  Colin was keen to find out more, so we’ve asked Nick to provide some tips, and to suggest some ideal plants for this kind of design.  The plants may be unfamiliar, but Nick, an absolute enthusiast when it comes to the beauty of our native flora, created the dry creek bed garden specifically to show off their charms. 

Step 1: Mark out the path of your creek, remembering that a meandering stream looks more natural than a straight one.

Step 2. Dig out the ‘creek’. The depth required will depend on the size of the rocks you are using. We excavated to a depth of 350mm.

Step 3. Place the rocks. Put larger rocks along the edge of the dry creek as you would find in nature. Place larger boulders at the point where your creek bends and keep the grain of each rock running in the same direction to achieve a more natural look.

Step 4. Fill in with gravel. Place larger sizes first, then medium and finish with small pea-sized gravel.

Step 5: Plant grass-like plants and ground covers to soften the edges of the creek bed. Then stagger sizes of shrubs leading back from the ‘creek’.

Plant notes: Creek-side natives

Common names: Spiked Emu Bush, Native Fuchsia, Red Rod

Plant name: Eremophila calorhabdos

Description: Red rod is an attractive upright shrub with tightly clustered leaves and profuse tubular reddish-pink flowers. Its upright branches create a useful vertical line.

Size:  Height 1.5m x 0.8m width

Special comments: The main flowering period is from winter to summer with periodic blooms at other times. The flowers attract honeyeaters. Judicious pruning promotes bushy growth. Native to Western Australia and Alice Springs and grows in semi-arid areas. The species name means beautiful wand.

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Full sun

Drought hardy

Frost tolerant

Common name: Kangaroo lobelia

Plant name: Dampiera diversifolia

Description: A dense ground cover with deep purple/blue flowers in spring and summer. Spreads vigorously along the ground.

Size:  Height 0.3m x 0.7m width

Special comments: This blue is unusual in the garden and makes a stunning combination when planted with flannel flowers, waratah and paper daisy. Can also be grown in a hanging basket and is useful in cottage gardens.

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Part shade

Moderate water

Good for pots

Common name:  Rose Myrtle

Plant name: Archirhodomyrtus beckleri ‘Edna Walling’

Description: An upright, slightly arching shrub, which is smothered in shell-pink, rose-like flowers. Native to the rainforests of NSW.

Size:  Height 2.5m x 1.5m width

Special comments: This delicate flowering shrub makes a good hedge against a fence or a feature within a mixed native garden. Deserves to be more widely grown. Leaves are aromatic when crushed.

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Part shade

Moderate water

Extra water in summer

Wind protection

Frost resistant

Common name:  Leionema ‘Green Screen’

Plant name: Leionema lamprophyllum x L.elatius

Description: A dense screen smothered in white flowers in spring.

Size:  Height 2m x 2m width

Special comments: Butterfly attracting. Looks terrific with other small-growing colourful natives like Chorizema cordatum, Correa pulchella salmon form, Lechenaultia formosa orange, Anigozanthos humilis and 'Joey Paws'.

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Part shade

Drought hardy

Frost tolerant

Common name:  Limelight Wattle

Plant name: Acacia ‘Limelight’

Description: Grows into an attractive, weeping, bun-shaped shrub with soft lime willow-like foliage.

Size:  Height 0.6m x 1m width

Special comments: This is excellent foliage specimen has great foliage texture and form that contrasts with everything else in the garden.

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Part shade

Extra water in summer

Good for pots

Frost tolerant

Common name: Fringe lily

Plant name: Thysanotus multiflorus

Description: A sweet little lilac/purple flower with tufted foliage

Size:  Height 0.3m x 0.3m width

Special comments: Flowers appear in spring and as the name suggests are fringed around the petals. We see this growing wild on our WA wildflower tour.

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Part shade

Moderate water

Good for pots

Frost tolerant

Common name: Seascape Matrush

Plant name: Lomandra ‘Seascape’

Description: A graceful soft bluish grass with a long life; very easy to grow.

Size:  Height 0.4m x 0.4m width

Special comments: This excellent foliage plant can either be mass-planted to get that seascape effect or used solo as a contrast with other flowering natives.

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Full sun

Part shade

Drought hardy

Good for pots

Frost tolerant