These are some pictures of a backyard project we did this year.

BEFORE: (click to enlarge)

Notice the "steps to nowhere"

We moved the stones that were the "steps to nowhere" and put them on the slope we walked up all the time to get to the gate. This project is also hopefully going to help with a drainage/erosion problem we were having. We haven't had a heavy rain since the dry creek bed along the side was built, so I really don't know if it will do any good or not.

I was pretty happy a couple weeks ago when the neighbor said we could dig up a Russian Sage that was creeping over her sidewalk!

So, this is the nearly finished "AFTER". I have a little more work to do on it (and some more plants to add), but it's pretty close to done.
{{gwi:288413}}From 2008 Backyard project

If you click the photos, there are a few more on the web album if you'd like to check them out. We built this nearly for free. We moved the steps and lengthened the run. The wall stones we got free from someone on Craigslist. There is some Moss Rock and Colorado Pink Granite in there I believe. I also got the red pathway rock through freecycle, and the river rock was in another spot in the yard. We added some metal edging along the river rock creek bed, hopefully to keep it all in place when it does rain... (also free from CL, but we had to buy the pins - they were nearly $20). We also bought the "driftwood" which is actually Bristlecone pine stumps for a few dollars a while back.

The drainage plan (boy I hope it works!!)...

In front of that travel trailer is the downspout from the garage and part of the house roof. That water and the water from the trailer run along the parking area, under the gate and down to about the end of this project. Then it turns right and runs down the steeper slope of the yard. This summer we had about 8" deep gulleys across the yard. The way this is supposed to work is the water comes under the gate, into the dry creek bed. It gets to the end where there are three "dry wells". It should spill from one into the next, to the third, and over the edge where hopefully it's slowed enough that it's going to flow as more of a sheet of water than a river. There is also another downspout from the back of the house that runs the water along the front of the bed to the same area. Again, I'm crossing my fingers that it helps, or at least doesn't make things worse... I'm thinking if I slow the water down and can get something to grow out there, it will help a lot.

Of course, I moved the steps to nowhere, and built a path to nowhere... eventually there will be a garage out there, so the path will likely go there. There will be plants on the other side of the lower pathway. I'm also hoping when I get plants in there, the dogs will use more of the pathway, and I'll have less sand and gravel drug into the house (that may be a longshot, but I can hope).