Creative Designs
Streams and Rills
Streams and rills can be enormously useful in linking together water features, as well as various parts of the garden. Here a pictorial review is made of streams and rills, both historically, naturally and of the present day, to enable the creative water gardener to use ingenuity in introducing this lovely feature to the home water garden.
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 A natural stream is a great asset to a garden.
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Natural Streams
A natural stream is a great asset to a garden, but it must be remembered that it only belongs to the garden for that part of it through which it flows. Up-stream and down-stream belong to someone else, and so control of the flow is not in the hands of the water gardener, as is the case with an artificial stream. Interference with the flow of a stream can also have serious consequences for everyone. A natural stream is best just dressed with planting.
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Artificial Streams
Artificial streams can be constructed from pre-formed sections, concrete, or by using a pond liner. The best effect is achieved with a gradient of between 10° and 30°. Where appropriate the flow of water can be slowed by introducing a series of shallow waterfalls or small ponds. The sound and movement of the water can be adjusted by the use of different materials. A stream-bed littered with cobbles produces a different sound to one covered with gravel, or nothing at all.
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 The flow can be controlled by small waterfalls.
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 A rill encourages a visitor to move from one part of the garden to another.
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Rills
Rills and channels differ from streams in that they are usually very fast-flowing, narrow, and devoid of any of the encumbrances of a stream. A rill is usually straight or angular in orientation and often divides parts of the garden, or leads the visitor from one area of the garden to another. The structure of a rill is mostly formal, although historically that formality has often been embellished by decorations or fancy tile-work.
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