How to Design & Build a Rock & Water Garden

Your efforts will be rewarded when your tranquil water garden is complete.

Pick up any of the home and garden magazines on the newsstands and you'll find that fantasy has replaced practicality when it comes to gardening. In place of rows of tulips rimming lush lawns, water gardens have become trendy in all areas of the country. At first blush, many rock and water gardens look too complex to tackle, but they're easier than you may imagine if you've got the right tools and some time.

Things You'll Need

• Rake/shovel
• Sketch
• String
• Stakes
• Pre-formed plastic pond
• Waterproof pool lining
• Plastic sheeting or quick-mix cement
• Bucket
• Plants, flowers, ground cover, shrubs
• Water pump and tubing (optional)
• Wall brackets (optional)

Instructions

1. Sketch out the shape of your water garden to begin the design process. Design a square or rectangle garden if you like geometric shapes, want your installation to abut an exterior wall or plan to add a waterfall to your rock and water garden. Opt for circles and oval-shapes if your design doesn't require electrical power or stabilizing walls.

2. Clear the area you've earmarked for your rock and water garden. Use a rake to remove grass, roots and plants. Smooth the surface out. Employ string and stakes to define the circumference of the space.

3. Frame up the space and pour concrete or lay down plastic sheeting in the area so weeds are contained beneath your rock and water garden if you don't desire a concrete slab. This will help make the water garden a permanent installation. Allow the concrete to dry.

4. Position a pre-formed plastic water garden shell in the center of the cement or plastic sheeting. Use brackets to fasten rubber tubing to the wall if you plan to add a waterfall.

5. Shape the framework for your garden by placing the largest rocks you've obtained around the base of the periphery you've staked out. Use cement to hold the rocks together as you build upward to create the basin of your water garden.

6. Continue to stack and cement rows of rock to the height you desire, whether you're making an island or wall-stabilized design. Leave space in the wall to thread the tubing from the wall mount to the bottom of the pool if you plan to add a waterfall to your rock and water garden. This will allow a pump to be installed and connected.

7. Plug in and test out the pump, if you've installed one, to make sure your waterfall works before you landscape. Plant easy-care shrubs, bushes and perennial flowers indigenous to your area of the country to complete your rock and water garden. Fast-spreading ground cover will camouflage the edges of your water garden.

Tips & Warnings

• Choose an area of your yard for your installation based on the plants you intend to install and their propensity for sun or shade.

• Check with city, village or town officials to see if you need a construction permit or license to install your exterior water feature.

References

• Water Garden: Build a Water Garden
• Backyard Oasis: Water Garden Design/Installation
• Great Landscaping Ideas: Pool Landscaping
• Plant Care: Small Yard Landscaping