Rocky River

So after the final tree at the back corner of our yard died and we were unable even to keep grass there due to the damp, we realized that we had to do something a little different. As we got quotes for a patio, we asked for suggestions for what to do for this back corner, as well. First, we considered a true rain garden that could pass a perc test and maybe even qualify for some rebates and grants. But one of the landscapers pointed out that you don't want to create a rain garden where there's already too much water - it already attracts too much water and has trouble absorbing it. Rain gardens are better suited for areas where you can redirect water to help spread it out. So we abandoned that idea but still decided to put in water friendly plants and replace the grass (actually, mud) with rocks. And finally, we wanted high enough plants to help cover up the fence line and provide privacy. Here was the proposal we went with, which included 4 cubic yards of river rocks:

They put it all together pretty quickly, given the little trucks that they were able to bring through the yard to deposit all that rock. They put in landscaping cloth too, to help reduce the weeds that might sprout there. Here's the view before everything woke up - you can see the birch in the back corner most prominently.

It makes a lovely sweeping arc from our yard and was the perfect place to move our giant concrete bench.

Here's the sedge, with a red chokeberry behind it. Sedge looks a lot like a spider plant:

There turned to be just one little problem. Apparently, if you raise up a wet spot (by putting rocks on top of it), it just moves the wet stop, it doesn't get rid of it. So the area in front of and to the side of this lovely rock garden ended up being constantly damp--and that included the area next to our shed. That was a big oops. So D took on a huge project. He moved a bunch of the rock, cut into the landscaping cloth, and dug a little channel in between the new plants. His thinking was that this would give the rainwater a place to collect inside the rock area, instead of in front of it. It was a grueling process, made more frustrating knowing that he was undoing work we'd just paid for:

The good news is that it seemed to work pretty well. He left it uncovered for a while, to test the concept when it rained.

Satisfied it was doing its job, he overlapped the landscaping cloth over the cut and put the rocks back into place. Here's what happens now when it rains (and we are going to try to be diligent about tossing in a mosquito dunk). The water drains within a day or two, depending on how wet the soil beneath it already is, and the ground in front of the rocky area has been staying pretty dry!

Fast forward to today and here's what the scene looks like. The plants have all woken up and there's a little (dry) channel running through it. You can even see the random metal sheet that D uncovered when he was digging the channel, resting on the fence.

I'm not sure why the landscapers covered the old tree trunk with landscaping cloth (after they took another couple of inches off the height of it) and left it like that. We put a flower pot on it but didn't love it. We could free it from the cloth so that it at least is a tree trunk and not a random gray circle. Any ideas?