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Looking for ideas for this Trough border round our garden

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  • BenCottoBenCotto Posts: 4,718
    Keukenhof has rivers of muscari. You’d have more of a rill than a river but for two weeks in the year it would give you a buzz.
    Rutland, England
  • JoeXJoeX Posts: 1,783
    edited March 2021
    Install a pump, and hose pumping water from the brook to the top left corner of your photo into the gulley.

    Put guttering into the gulley so the water flows continually round and down back into the brook

    Who cares about mowing a lawn just let it grow, but any cuttings would be washed along and away

    Ignore anyone who objects, just get it done 👍
  • hatty123hatty123 Posts: 125
    Im sure youve thought of this, but is it level all the way around? Even a small gradient you can't notice by eye would affect a shallow channel like that. I like the idea of planting up with lavender that someone else has suggested
  • K67K67 Posts: 2,506
    edited March 2021
    @JoeX the OP did want to put guttering in but didn't think it was possible to curve it to the lawn shape.
    If it's not got a fall on it and a fast enough water flow dirt, grass and leaves will just accumulate in places, especially where there are joins.
  • BenCottoBenCotto Posts: 4,718
    It looks to me like there are about a dozen steps leading down to the bottom of the garden.
    Rutland, England
  • Thanks all. Love the idea of pumping water from the Brook. 
  • SophieKSophieK Posts: 244
    Wow, those are some very crisps edges!

    Why don't you plant young lavender plants for a low maintenance evergreen hedge that's good for pollinators and gives you gorgeous scent when you're sipping that beer by the brook?
  • JoeXJoeX Posts: 1,783
    K67 said:
    @JoeX the OP did want to put guttering in but didn't think it was possible to curve it to the lawn shape.
    If it's not got a fall on it and a fast enough water flow dirt, grass and leaves will just accumulate in places, especially where there are joins.
    Things can always go wrong in gardening so I’m very much a “give it a go” kind of imperfect gardener, I think it would be fun to try and see if it works and it would be pretty unique if it did. And if it doesn’t then it’s just half a day in the garden mucking about learning which is no real loss :smile:
  • Thanks for the suggestions good people. There’s a few mentions of Lavender plants. I’m not aware of Lavender, what it does and am curious to understand why it is suited to this application. 
  • If I understand rightly, you’ve cut that channel between the lawn and the hard paving, but it’s turning out to be a nuisance to maintain. If that’s correct, then your best option is to backfill the gap with topsoil, put down some lawn seed, and reinstate the lawn up to the paving. You can keep it under control against the edge with an ordinary strimmer. 

    Beyond that, you have a few other courses of action, but they all involve quite extensive intervention, so you need to decide on your priorities, time and budget. If you are really keen on the idea of bringing the water into the garden, this can be done, but as others have said, not by diverting the brook. Natural water course have highs and lows. You’d risk flooding your lawn regularly. The best practical solution is to install a self-contained water course with a pump. Certainly to put down a rill along the edge of your lawn, you’d be facing 1. Digging out a channel deep enough to bed in a gutter large enough not to get blocked all the time by debris and algae; 2. Installing a pump; 3. Reinstating the lawn in the area where you’ve been working. 

    None of this is impossible and some amazing effects can be achieved, but it’s a lot of technically demanding work, so consider what you can take on and how much time and money you can devote to it.

    Also, if you go down that route, ask yourself if you really want it to be running along that particular course. If you are going to go to the trouble and expense of building a watercourse in the garden, then it could go anywhere you liked...
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