Has anyone built a rockery?

[BooseysMom]

Hello,
We have a new garden consisting of clay, stones and rubble and turf. No top soil. Can I use the clay soil and stones to build a rockery by basically digging it up and building a hill, or should I remove the lot and start again with bought-in top soil and sand mixed?
Would love to hear your experiences of building a rockery
Thank you.

Rockeries are lovely, but need good drainage, so the clay soil wouldn’t be good to use. To make them stable they need some large structural rocks. The smaller stones could be used for central filling in.
I’d research some on Pinterest, you’ll get tips on construction and the type of plants. I love mine, I inherited it, but micro gardening is very satisfying.

@Beebumble2.. thank you for replying. Yes I think that clay would def. be too heavy and I'll need top soil with sand incorporated and large rocks for structure like you say.
I'll try Pinterest too. Thanks.

I built on on a border on extremely heavy clay, I just removed 25% of it and dug in sharp sand (available in B&Q) and strategically placed boulders and planted some alpines and also hardy sage and thymes. It looks amazing in the spring.

@shepherdessbush.. thank you. It's good to hear of your success. We took a load of dug-out clay to the skip which had been sitting in sacks for some months and was water-logged. DH nearly did his back in lifting the sacks! We decided to not remove any more clay and just try to dig it in and incorporate compost and sand. The issue is removing the turf.
Your rockery sounds lovely and exactly what we are aiming for.

Removing turf is not too bad. Use a sharp spade. The grass roots are fairly shallow. Drive the spade in vertically to cut through the turf to a depth of about 3 inches all across one edge. Then repeat a spade width's away. Starting at one end, cut across between the two long cuts about a foot apart. Put your spade under at one end, just below the grass roots, and slice horizontally. If you've got all your cuts the right depth, you should be able to lift a slab of turf fairly easily. Just keep going until you've got rid of it all.

If you stack the turf upside down, it will over the course of a year rot down into reasonable humus-rich topsoil that you can then use in your garden.

Remember clay + humus = good soil.

Hi Mere.thanks for the advice. You know, I never realised you could remove it that way! Anything to not have to haul heavy sacks of clay to the skip again!
I'm having a lazy bank hol but am on the case tomorrow!
Thanks again. You're a gold mine of gardening info!