Question: How do I arrange the stones in a rock garden to make them look natural?
Answer: Taking your cue from nature, the idea is to make it appear that the stone in your rock garden is merely the exposed fraction of a massive underground formation. To achieve the look of natural stones, each stone should appear firmly grounded -- as if it were the "tip of the iceberg." Each stone also should appear as if connected to its immediate neighbors, separated only by the crevices in which you'll be growing the plants of the rock garden.
As in the natural world, stay away from constrained stone patterns and even distribution, striving instead for a feel of randomness in your rock garden. Have a massive grouping of stones here, a smaller grouping there, and mulched areas in between. Arrangement is crucial in achieving the look of natural stones.
The stones in a rock garden should relate to each other as as if they comprised a bedrock formation exposed either by gradual weathering or by more dramatic erosion. Consequently, the major rock faces should point in one direction throughout the rock garden. If the stones are stratified, position the rocks in each grouping so as to have the strata lines all going in the same direction, as they would in most natural stone formations.
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