ARTICLES Archives - Page 96 of 315

Powers of Observation

'Science tells us that the human eye can see about seven million colors and that our minds instinctively perceive depth and dimension. This visual capacity,' noted Stephanie Rose at the outset of her Natural Companions column in April 2006, 'enables most of us to move around without bumping into things, some of us to swing at and somehow hit a golf ball and, in the case of a beautiful garden (we can hope), all of us sense

Resonance

Is watershaping well served by the way things are going? My roundabout discussion of this question, its origins and implications has occupied several of my blogs through the past half year and more. I've enjoyed this process of stepping back and taking a long view of

It's an unusual arrangement, but the three partners in Tributary figured they could serve a vastly broadened geographic base by pooling their firms' design capabilities -- and by using digital technology to eliminate distance as a barrier to their innovative form of collaboration.

A Different Drum

This is a story about possibilities pulled within reach by modern technology. It all started early in 2015, when one of us talked with a friend about the benefits of belonging to a group of like-minded professionals who get together a couple times a year to talk shop, exchange ideas and generally build the kind of camaraderie that's hard to develop if all you do is

A Technicolor Pageant

It may be an old-school fountain display, but it's still a pretty amazing exhibition of technical know-how and ambition - and, better yet, opened my eyes to the story of a man named Frederic W. Darlington who, in a colorful career, apparently installed fountains across the country in the last years of the 19th Century and into the early years of the 20th. Most of these pioneering watershapes are gone now, but one is

Happy, Healthy and Safe

Koi ponds can be watershapes of great beauty in which sizeable populations of large, gorgeous fish thrive through the long lives these creatures often experience. With the pond that appears at the start of the video linked below, however, there were key features that were missing from the existing pond that put the big fish at risk in a number of ways. I don't know the full history of the pond, but it's clear it

Quality Don’t Come Easy

'During the past few years,' wrote Brian Van Bower to open his Aqua Culture column in March 2001, 'I've come to the stark realization that there are too few quality craftspeople in most geographical areas of our country. And it's not just the watershaping trades: The same holds true for most areas of the greater construction industry as well.' 'The hard reality is that, for many people in the trades, it's easier to do three ordinary jobs in a week than it is to do one challenging project over a month. I'm starting to think that

Time (Mostly) Well Spent

I see something of this nature on the web about once a week in peak season and about monthly this cooler time of year. In this instance, it was labeled as "55 Most Awesome Swimming Pool Designs on the Planet." I feel obliged to check out these things, but I always do so with a high level of reluctance because I've generally seen all of the collected pools before and almost invariably end up

Planning for a Rainy Day

In most backyard swimming pool projects, we install the drainage systems for decks after the swimming pool's plumbing, basically because the pool plumbers use big trenchers that will likely destroy the small drainage plumbing if

Precious Cargo

Of all the tasks involved in giving a good-size pond a thorough spring cleaning, taking care of the fish is the biggest concern and, frankly, the riskiest part of the operation. It's not simply a matter of chasing them around the pond and cramming them into a net before unceremoniously dumping them in a garbage can: If the job is approached with that cruel and misguided spirit, it's fully possible that the fish and other aquatic wildlife will show their appreciation by

In the year to come, the renowned Main Fountain at Longwood Gardens will be undergoing a mass-scale renovation. Robert Nonemaker is tracking the process for us, beginning here with an insider's report on the grand display's gradual decline -- and imminent rebirth.

Imagination Renewed

When the management at Longwood Gardens announced in late 2014 that the Main Fountain Garden would be taken offline and become the subject of a $90 million restoration project, anyone who has ever visited the gardens had to be happy. I've been a regular visitor and huge fan of the Longwood for most of my life, and it's been sad through the years to watch various systems break down and the overall performance of what was left gradually