Rock Garden Pond Edging Installation

A rock garden pond will make a beautiful and natural addition to your backyard landscape. Edging ponds with boulders and rocks is probably best suited for informal water garden designs or possibly even semi-formal ponds.

Keep it natural

In nature boulders are usually partially buried, so you need to incorporate this into your plan for a more natural look. Varying the size of the rocks and boulders will also add to the natural appearance.

Choose the right material

Try to choose boulders and rocks that compliment your existing landscape. Also, it is best to avoid loose crumbly rocks. Not only are they unstable, but they may also leach harmful minerals into your water garden which may be dangerous to your fish and plants.

Make it structually sound

It is important to provide support for heavy stones. This can be done by adding a bed of cement for larger boulders to rest on. This is especially important in loose, sandy soil.

Also be very careful when using heavy stones with pre-formed pond liners, as they can very easily buckle and warp. If you want to create a rock garden pond with a pre-formaed pond liner it may be best to set the liner in concrete.

Plan ahead for pumps, filters and waterfalls

When installing your edging, please keep in mind any additonall water features you plan to incorporate. Make allowances for filter or pump hoses and electical cords. You should also have any streams and waterfalls mapped out and accounted for before installing your stone pond edging.

If you are planning to add underwater lighting to your water garden, this too should be taken into consideration before installation.

Create a bog area (optional)

One option to consider if using a flexible pond liner is to create a bog area for marginal plants. Allow for extra liner past the boulder and create a hollowed out area before raising the sides of the liner up.

Simply fill the area with soil and plant marginals like horse tail there. The rocks and boulders will help contain the soil from entering the pond, but the gaps between the rocks will allow water into the bog area, keeping the soil saturated.

If there are large gaps, use smaller rocks to fill them in a bit.



Leave Rock Garden Pond Edging Installation and Return to Edging Your Pond

Return to Water-Garden-Guide.com Home Page