Any suggestions

[Niagara Falls]

This is where I am at now, and I'm bumping into a mind block. My idea was to have the gravel & rocks come out on the right side and have top soil and plants on the left.
Now that I've started to do it, I feel it doesn't look right.

I'm attaching a couple of picture to show a with & without gravel.
Any thoughts or suggestions will be appreciated.

[tadpole]

It is hard to make any suggestions without observing the water flow. I usually do most of the rock and gravel placement after I have the feature running. I find that it is easier to 'Frame' the water flow this way. Do you have weed barrier under the gravel surrounding the basin? You will need it.

[StoneFaced]

I agree w/ the need to see the water flow, and would get that running before going any further. It's a little hard to tell, but it looks like your gravel has eaten up a lot of the height of the areas you had excavated, especially to the left just behind the tree. The catch basin also looks too high. Maybe try stacking some flat rock in place of some of that river rock, to gain some height variation...because it looks like you lost it a little w/ trying to gain coverage over the liner. Also, think about what makes it look believable. As it sits, it looks like the water would be flowing from the garage. You can tweak that by a well thought out planting...especially near the top end.

[mdlwn1]

Might want to try and hide the water source as water in nature generally does not flow straight from a house.....

[STL Ponds and Waterfalls]

Is this suppose to be a pond or pondless waterfall? I'm assuming a pond with the signature skimmer, but your pond basin looks a little shallow and the water will run out the sides. This is just from what I can gather from the picture.

[Niagara Falls]

Tadpole:
No I do not have a weed barrier. Can I use the left over geotex, or do I need to buy a weed barrier product?

And thanks for the advice about having the water running. I will do that before I go any further.
And as to how the water will look to be flowing from the garage, I plan to build it up with rocks and hopefully it will appear like the water is flowing from below a mass of rock and plants. It's hard to explain, but I hope it will work.

Once I have the water running, I'll post more pics.

Thanks for all the comments and advice, they're very helpful

[tadpole]

Would not recommend using underlayment as a weed barrier. I thought of the same idea before and learned better. It will hold moisture. Any seed that is deposited on its surface will probably germinate and send roots into the geotex itself. Use a good woven weed block fabric.

[Niagara Falls]

The water is in and running, but awfully dirty

[tadpole]

Rock dust. You can do a water change or just let it eventually settle out.

Looks pretty good , so far. No Leaks?

[Niagara Falls]

Yea, there is one leak at the 2nd waterfall by the big boulder. I was planning on tracing it this morning, but we had a huge rain storm that lasted until 10, so I need to wait until it dries up. I've read that there is some type of product that you either spray or just add and it collects all the dirt and settles it to the bottom. But I can't find any locally.