This is my first year in my house (my first house). I have a great backyard - dappled shade with a mature oak canopy - which is just right for Georgia natives. (Yum! Azaleas!)

My back yard has a fairly strong slope toward my house, but the area right behind the house has enough grading that my basement stays dry.

Much of the water runs down a gully that cuts through the middle of my back yard (I think it's naturally formed). It's not very deep and not extremely attractive (it's not hideous either), though it has possibilities.

The gully stays dry unless it's raining, so I'd like to put in a dry stream bed. This raises several issues.

1) I'm going for a naturalized botanical garden/state forest kind of look. Round river rock looks cool, BUT doesn't happen in Georgia. What you see more often is flat granite(?) that's sort of layered. (link below) I'd like to do something like that, but I'm not sure how.

2) Mature oaks = Mature oak roots. Digging is REALLY hard, so I'd like to do as little as possible when putting in the stones.

3) Would putting in landscaping cloth and stones change the direction or increase the amount of water heading toward my house?

Does anybody have any ideas, suggestions, links or pictures(!) to help me develop my ideas?

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://toadstool.se/journal/snapshots/894.jpg&imgrefurl=http://toadstool.se/journal/2005/07/14/agile-web-development-with-rails-is-done&h=570&w=380&sz=100&tbnid=05KZa7yLrf9YjM:&tbnh=131&tbnw=87&hl=en&start=3&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dfalls%2Bin%2Bgeorgia%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D