Looking for the tranquil sound of moving water in your garden? A water feature that is safe and "zero maintenance"? If you are then a Bubbling Rock Garden is just right for you.

Planning

Plan for the actual bubbling rock garden to take up 60% of the garden area that you have available for your feature. The other 40% of the garden shoud be available to dress up and soften the area with plants and mulch. Your feature does not have to be large to be effective. Keep your new garden in scale with the rest of your existing landscape.

Installation

The size of your bubbling rock will determine the size of the hole you are going to need as a reservoir. Most bubbling rock installations will require a hole 18 inches deep 4' by 4' in diameter. This will require a pond liner 10 ft by 10 ft allowing for 18 inches of overlap around the hole. Underlay cloth is placed under the liner to protect it from sharp objects.

A 5 gallon pail is used as a sump to place the pump in to supply water to the featured rock. This pail has multiple holes drilled in the sides to allow water in and one larger hole to fit the 1inch anti kink hose through. There is a small notch cut in the top of the pail for the electrical cord to fit through.(This set up allows the easy removal of the pump before winter).

A piece of flagstone is then placed over the top of the pail to allow easy access and to hide the pail. After the sump pail is in place, the hole is filled with 6 to 10 inch cobblestone, then a mixture of 6 to 10 inch cobbleshtone and 4 to 6 inch cobblestone is arranged on the surface for a natural look.

The outer area of cobblestone usually is finished off with 2 inch round stone. The 40% of the garden outside of the cobblestone area is finished off with various plants and Red Pine Mulch accented with various Bruce rocks.

Insert the 1 inch anti kink hose into the bottom of the selected drilled rock, next the bubbling rock into the cobblestone area, hide the cord and you are ready to go.

Night lighting of your bubbling rock feature will add many hours of enjoyment to your garden.