Ponds, Streams & Waterfalls
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
On a big project such as the one we're covering in this video series, the rocks needed to give the cascades a natural look are quite substantial - some in the 36-inch range or larger, with weights rising to a ton or more in a few cases. Handling these brutes takes reliable equipment as well as distinct skill in working with
This is another instance in pond construction in which experience is a huge advantage: When it's time to size and set things up for a long, cascading stream leading down a reasonably steep hill to a pond-free basin, there's nothing about the process that I'd like to approach without knowing
We love working on projects we can record and share through the Internet. At The Pond Digger (Yucaipa, Calif.), we've always believed that these videos help our prospective clients make informed decisions about what they want to do in their backyards. That's why we generally keep them pretty basic. At the same time, we've always believed that our videos have value in a professional context, particularly for
The life of a pond installer is dotted with moments of quiet satisfaction. Getting a contract signed is an obvious one, as is accepting final payment. But in between, you have to take positive moments where you can find them - and for me, there's nothing more soul-satisfying than introducing aquatic animals to a new pond I've built. In the specific project covered
