Ponds, Streams & Waterfalls
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
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
Many of our clients enter into pond ownership with every intention of being actively and intimately involved in upkeep and maintenance. What this often means is that, for the first year or maybe two, they'll net out leaves, clear the skimmer basket and, maybe once a year, will hold their noses (literally or figuratively) and muck out the filter. But what we've found with our clients
The current generation of pond designers and installers tends to think big - often very big - and enjoy pursuing projects on large properties in which the basin and its accompanying streams and waterfalls create spaces so naturalistic that it seems like the water's been there forever. That's a noble goal - and one I pursue frequently in my projects for
Some projects are just more enjoyable than others - and this was one of the fun ones. We were called to a property in Bridgehampton, N.J., where the homeowner had amassed a large collection of ducks, geese and other birds (including some peacocks). The creatures occupied a large area in the big backyard - but a washtub had been
I live on the eastern-most fringe of the west side of Los Angeles, a neighborhood with an eclectic urban concoction of mixed nationalities and wide-ranging aesthetics - including a lack thereof. This hilly East Hollywood region has views of the downtown skyline and cars lined up regularly at four-way stop signs deployed in an effort to minimize the number of streetlights we must navigate to get from our homes to nearby Hollywood and Sunset Boulevards. In short, we are bursting at the seams with
It happens often enough that it was time for me to make a video about the process. It usually starts with a call from a homeowner who has a pond that has become a plant-choked, green and often smelly mess. It may have been a do-it-yourself project, but sometimes
Our work in this backyard was only part of a larger project - a big part, to be sure, but once we were done a landscape crew came on site and kept on working. That's not unusual with a project on this scale, but we were so happy with our work that it was a bit disappointing not to paint the entire picture. In some sense, however, I think this made us focus all the more on
Pond-free waterfall systems are a conceptual oddity: At first thought, they don't seem as though they can in any way appear natural, with their long streams of cascading water disappearing into voids instead of flowing across the large sort of pond that is so familiar to most of us in natural settings. But I'm among those who like these odd watershapes - and I think much of it has to do with the fact that we
Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I can sometimes look like a rock outcropping myself: Whatever it is, I love working with big chunks of stone in my pond projects. More than any single design element I can deploy, there is no other component that's more important when it comes to making my work look as though it's been there
