ARTICLES Archives - Page 77 of 312

Generational Shifts

Ever since I completed my last WaterShapes World entry - the one on the passing of Herman Silverman and John Kelley, Jr. - I've found myself thinking about the coincidence of their having been 30 years apart in age - that is, with a conventional "generation" between them. It reminded me that

Straight Talk

Bruce Zaretsky opened his very first On the Level column back in August 2007 with a question: ‘Does the size of a project or its budget correlate with its creativity or quality?’ ‘I know many of us have clients who think that way, believing the more money they spend, the better product they’re going to get,’ he wrote. ‘And my best guess is that there are

A crucial part of the backyard design process these days, writes Glen MacGillivray, is motivating homeowners to venture outside after dark. Here's a look at how he approaches this day-to-night transition, from keeping the water moving to making it glow.

A Full Day’s Delight

With increasing frequency, I'm running into higher-end clients who lead hectic 9-to-5 lives - too packed for them to be able to enjoy the swimming pool we're proposing to build with much more than holiday-weekend frequency. Obviously, the key with these homeowners is making certain the pool we're discussing is something they can appreciate and enjoy 24 hours a day - whenever they happen to be home and can be drawn out into a

Pond-Algae Strategies

Although a little algae in a pond is generally a good and inevitable thing, observes Mike Gannon, a bloom of any noticeable extent is never truly welcome. That's why he has sized up and is ready to recommend a number of ways to help keep the intrusive greenery at bay.

Setting up a vanishing-edge Koi pond offers unusual challenges to the watershaper. First, notes Scott Cohen, you need to accommodate the fish and keep them safe. Then there are the aesthetic issues -- plus a few details of installation that require extra-special attention.

Split-Level Pond

Given the choice, there are few projects I enjoy more than renovations: The process of taking an existing outdoor space that isn't making people happy and coming to their rescue with a personalized dreamscape is about as satisfying as it gets. This sort of shift in vision happens quite often when homes change hands and the new owners bring in a different set of needs and desires. In grand terms, there might be nothing particularly "wrong" with the original setting, but if the new owners either want to

Sad Partings

Two recent obituaries caught my eye, one for Herman Silverman, who passed away in May at age 97, the other for John Kelley Jr., who was just 67 when he died in June. I don't believe I ever met Herman Silverman, but I do recall hearing his name so often that

A Sinking Feeling

I've seen something of the future, and I'm afraid this part of it at least is going to be very, very sad. We've just returned from a glorious vacation that took me and Judy to Venice, Italy, to celebrate her retirement after a long career as a teacher. She'd been there before, more than 40 years ago, but I'd had to

Inexplicable

In my visits to St. Louis through the years, I've spent a lot of time admiring the compactness of its downtown district: There's so much cool stuff within easy walking distance, from the Gateway Arch and the baseball stadium to numerous hotels and restaurants - not to mention several public

Pitching in to move four large turtles out of a plain concrete tank and into a beautiful pond was soul satisfying, notes Ed Beaulieu. But making the project a gift to a pioneering turtle researcher? That was even more rewarding for the 50 skilled volunteers who helped make it happen.

From Tank to Pond

There's little in life as soul-satisfying as working in a good cause. As pond professionals, of course, we get lots of opportunities to do nice things for our clients - by beautifying their backyards, bringing fish and aquatic plants into their lives and creating sources of soothing serenity they can enjoy each and every day. That's great, but in the project described in this article, the level of service reached a much higher plane. One of the cool things about

Free Your Mind

‘One of the fascinating things about working with the different types of clients we encounter as watershapers,’ wrote Brian Van Bower in his July 2007 Aqua Culture column in WaterShapes, ‘is that we can never really know what to expect. ‘If my years of experience have taught me anything,’ he added, ‘it’s that perception is often very different