Construction
Placing the cursor over will change to alternate pictures.
Design
Well that is a tricky one, I had a rough idea of what I would like in my mind.
With the first side one I wanted several focal features one of a central waterfall of at least 1 mtr together with a main fish pond/fountain containing water lilies. This was to be connected by several other smaller rapid level changes joined by 8 mtr's of small rivers that disappeared in places finishing in a main pond, overall height 2 - 2 1/2 mtr's with a total river length of over 11mtr's.
Rock Features
Where as with the second side, because I already had a waterfall I wanted something else as a focal point so instead of making a feature I used the natural rock textures & shapes to create the highlights of the rockery. In the rocks that were being delivered there was an occasional rock that would stand out, it might have been size, shape, colour, or texture, anything that stood out with any of these features was placed aside for first consideration when it came to choosing the rocks for main feature aspects. I made the second side a lot more serene as the water pace is a lot slower it has an overall fall of only 1.4 mtrs with an overall river length of 9 mtrs with a central feature of an Island of made of strikingly marked volcanic rock see center pictures, moving the cursor over the pictures changes to a alternate picture.
Bottom picture is of the second side once it was finished, it was taken from above standing at the tallest point looking down the full length of the first river section of this side the alternate picture show's the same side being allowed to settle of a week or so before the planting & river work begins.
Rockwork Construction
First I sat down with a piece of paper & designed what I had in mind as best as I could, once I was satisfied with what I had drawn I left it for a day or so just to ponder on it I used an imagination inhancement aid & imagined what it would look like finished.
d:-)
I made several small alterations but nothing major, it is a lot easier to change a drawing than a couple of ton of rock.
Once I was satisfied with the shape & features I wanted I marked it all out on the ground with a little bit of garden lime.
I then selected most of the largest rocks as the base stones these were sunk into the ground slightly just to stabilize them due to any irregular shapes. Once I had the ring of rocks complete one stone high I marked out & dug the pond hole using the soil to back fill the first layer of rock, I then went around with a second layer & then back filled again , I kept repeating this process until I had achieved the height I wanted in the various sections. I strengthened any section over 1 mtr high by using several long rocks at right angle to the rocks in the walls & also using rocks in the back fill.
I used 2 different types of soil in this process firstly I used the soil that came out of the pond hole in conjunction with a ton or so of basic loam for about 75% of the initial backfill then I used a specially made mix of loam /manure's/fertilizer to top it off to give the plants something to get their roots into these types of mixtures MUST be aged if you intend to use natives & ferns as it can be a bit rich when first made especially if chicken manure is used .