Recycling Concrete

I love finding ways to use stuff
that would normally end up in the trash

As part of our basement remodel we had to remove some of our concrete pad.  Some of the chunks I used in our retaining wall for drainage.  Some of the chunks I used to hold soil to level out my gazebo.  And today I used the remaining chunks for my dry "stream" bed and some steps.  

We have some french drains and some pipes from the house that drain daily down a slope.  No vegetation will grow there so the soil was washing away.  I started putting down gravel and rocks to try and direct the flow and stop the erosion.  The little chunks of concrete work just fine for this.

Also I had a couple of big chunks with some smooth edges and tops.  I dug those into the slope to use as steps.  They seem solid and stable. Now I'll have a short cut down to the garden beds from our patio.

In the future I'd like to put down a liner and get some big fieldstone in there, with river pebbles and a water fountain at the top.  It's a really low priority project but if it gets done, I think it'll add some real pizazz to the back yard.

Our dry "stream" bed is a work in progress.