Ponds, Streams & Waterfalls
We recently completed a project that truly thrilled a pair of well-traveled, highly educated clients: It was a large, complex waterfall-and-pond composition in the sloping backyard of an upscale home in an affluent southern California neighborhood. There were a number of reasons why the project worked so well, but if I had to break it down to one thing more than any other, it had to do with the range of edge treatments we used within the available space. On the side nearest the house, we established a clean lawn-meets-water detail – very disciplined in appearance and obviously man-made. Directly across the pond was a set of rugged waterfalls – much wilder and basically untamed. Bracketing those features, we filled shallow areas with emergent plants and hiding places for fish and frogs. It was a well thought out plan, certainly right for the space. But I know for a fact that
For years, pond/stream specialist Bob Dews has sought perfection in the art of creating naturalistic bodies of water. Just last year, however, a client challenged him to reconsider his usual approach to pond design and develop one expressly for swimming. The result seen here is a composition in rock, plants and water that, rather than serving as a home for fish and aquatic life, is instead a safe environment for people – and lots of aquatic fun. It’s no secret that many homeowners who have ponds on their properties use them to cool off or even for swimming. These bodies of water are seldom intended for such purposes, but because of humankind’s affinity for water, the fact is that ponds often become “swimming holes” in which people are happy to
It’s one of the unavoidable results of living in urban or suburban areas: People who dwell in mostly built environments feel cut off from nature. This, of course, is one of the reasons why ponds and streams have become so popular among so many homeowners. Adding spice to the sauce, I’ve found in recent years that this desire for naturalistic watershapes and elaborate gardens has also been attended by a desire on the parts of many of my clients to attract various forms of wildlife to participate in the setting. And it’s not just about fish in their ponds: With increasing frequency, my clients are also asking me to design and build spaces that will comfortably host a variety of creatures, including
This past April, my wife Gina and I spent two wonderful weeks in Hawaii. As is true of most of those who visit our 50th state, we were mainly there to relax and enjoy warm weather, tropical Pacific waters, breathtaking scenery, fine cuisine and laid-back Hawaiian culture. As has been the case for countless others who’ve been there, we were not disappointed: Hawaii is everything people have said it is and much, much more. As a watershape designer, I had the added pleasure of being able to study a huge number of waterfalls and streams that mark many of the islands’ most appealing landscapes, particularly on Maui and Kauai. It was one of those happy situations where
Where do rivers start? That’s a question that has always fascinated me, basically because I know that the Nile, the Amazon and the Thames – as majestic and life-giving as they and many of the world’s other great rivers become – all begin as mere trickles. Indeed, with the notable exception of rivers that erupt from the ground as powerful streams, most great rivers start out as subtle emanations of water that has migrated, globule by globule, through vast areas of porous rock to emerge as tiny rivulets in zones known as “spring lines.” These spaces typically exist between
For a long time, we’ve focused on creating highly naturalistic ponds, cascades and streams that fit seamlessly into the wooded landscapes of North Carolina – projects of such quality that they stand up well in comparison to the vast numbers of natural watershapes we see just about every time we turn around. Until recently, the overwhelming majority of these watershapes were installed in backyards, away from public view, with many of them situated on these properties in ways that removed them from immediate access or turned them into remote destinations. That preference among our clients at Xstream Ponds (Cashiers, N.C.) seems to be changing. In the past few years, in fact, we’ve noticed a
I’ve always believed that creativity is a direct result of our ability to embrace the ways we are influenced by others. In my case, I grew up in Virginia in a family deeply involved in the art of landscaping. My grandmother was a master gardener who had an amazing ability to craft beautiful outdoor spaces – a skill and affinity she passed down to my father, who shared it in turn with my mother. In addition, I had an uncle who ran a spectacular nursery we’d visit several times each year. It’s no exaggeration to say
Only three percent of the world’s water exists as fresh water – that is, water with low salinity and total dissolved solids of the sort found in lakes, rivers, reservoirs, ponds, streams and aquifers. It is arguably our most precious resource because, quite simply, we can’t get along without it. As populations grow around the world, the amount of fresh water available for drinking, irrigation, bathing and sanitation annually decreases on a per capita basis. These fresh-water supplies are replenished only by precipitation, so when droughts disrupt historical weather patterns, there’s trouble ahead – especially if the shortages hit highly populated areas. Today, it is estimated that one in six people on our planet lacks access to an adequate water supply. While the vast majority of those who endure this disadvantage live in other parts of the world, we in the United States are becoming more and more subject to supply shortages when localized droughts occur. Recent conditions in the southeastern United States are a prime illustration of what this entails: In Georgia, for example, water supplies recently hit 50-year lows. These conditions resulted in the imposition of all sorts of restrictions on water use, in some areas leading to bans on the installation of new watershapes. At Aquascape (St. Charles, Ill.), we’ve long believed that it’s our responsibility as professional watershapers to act responsibly in such circumstances, meaning in our case that
As a rule, those of us who build watershapes meant for purposes other than swimming or hydrotherapy tend to pursue one path or another: Either we make our ponds, streams and waterfalls look as natural as we can manage, or we establish them to reveal the hand of man either partly or completely. In that either/or context, successful design depends at least in part on being perfectly clear with ourselves about what we are trying to achieve. In assessing ponds of these opposing forms, it's my personal practice to look at both natural ponds and formal ponds (or, more accurately, architectural ponds) as being right on par with one another with respect to their potential for beauty. Indeed, architectural ponds can be incredibly appealing when done up in such a way that
