The definition of cement: "a building material that is a powder made of a mixture of calcined limestone and clay; used with water and sand or gravel to make concrete."

Sorry for the mini lecture, but everytime I hear someone call concrete "cement", the ghost of my father comess haunting. I got corrected so many times as a kid for calling concrete "cement" or referring to limestone as "gravel". But for another idea, what about a raingarden in the center part? - lots of websites on that, or check your extension office, or your soil and water district office.

There are DIY options and options using different materials. For example, you could probably mix up enough concrete (thanks for clarifying, Tibs - is that use correct??) yourself to do this, or you could lay a row of bricks and mortar them in. Or you could get stone or bricklayers in to do the job instead, they might charge less, not having to pay the overhead of the "cement" truck.

KarinL

Thanks for the advice, and the correction! I am ready to learn any subject, from landscaping to cement work to grammar.

I will try to a few local stone masons or brick layers to see if they can work something out. I would love to try DIY, but based on the results of my previous attempts I only get to do projects that are not visible.

The rain garden does make the most sense for the area, but we already have a deodora cedar in the bed. As I was planting the tree I discovered that I had 2 feet of quicksand. After planting the tree it sank 6 inches over the next day or two, I really need to keep some of the water out of there.