A Picturesque (and Functional) Garden Bridge

I want to share our completion of this project; in anticipation of lots of people exploring the garden during the garden party we knew we had to create a functional bridge across the channel feeding our rain garden from the roof downspouts. Our initial attempt to create a channel to the rain garden had two 90 degree turns in order to keep the distance the channel crossed the path to a minimum, thereby also reducing the size of bridge needed. Our original bridge consisted of the two large rocks now utilized as ramps up from the path to the bridge at either end of our new pallet bridge...but I'm getting ahead of myself.

The original stone bridge basically only was in place for a day or two surrounding last year's spring garden party. Soon after, we noticed that soil, leaves and other debris carried down the channel by the water was getting dammed up under the rocks, so they had to go. For the next year, there was no bridge at all. We stepped across the channel or detoured to another path when using the wheelbarrow. During this year of monitoring the current channel path we also confirmed that the bends in the channel allowed for carving and sedimentation. Soil built up in the bottom of the channel and the lack of a soil berm between path and channel allowed for water to overflow out the down-slope side of the channel onto the path, thus never allowing the water to reach its intended infiltration location in the rain garden, topographically high in the garden. Thus an overhaul project began in which we re-routed the channel to continue straight into the rain garden, cutting diagonally across the path. We made use of the one pallet remaining from our improved chicken fence to make a bridge. Salvaged cedar fence slats were used to fill in the planking gaps, giving a beautiful weathered patina to the top. Hubby reinforced the "beams" supporting the planking to create a more sound structure. We also placed unused sample veneer brick vertically along the sides of the channel to protect the bank from erosion. Hubby researched and found out that May is historically the rainiest month in Austin. The re-design has already been put to good use and has functioned well!