Ponds, Streams & Waterfalls
Mike Gannon is always gratified when a do-it-yourself pond owner trusts him enough to seek his professional help. But as he relates in introducing this video on one such transformation, there's a single point he keeps very much in mind as he approaches the various tasks at hand.
There was a time when lots of ponds were set up without gravel, notes Ed Beaulieu. But as he discusses here, there are so many advantages to lining their interiors with rocks of various sizes that it's time to push that old practice out of the pond-making picture, once and for all.
Relatively speaking, building a Koi pond is often the easy part. The tough part? Working with clients to select the fish who will call the new watershape "home." I have to say that I've been bitten hard by the Koi bug and have spent countless hours learning as much as I can about these beautiful fish. It's a level of involvement that
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.
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
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
Whenever we approach a pond design/installation project, we are mindful of the fact that a big part of our mission is to make the result as trouble-free as possible for our clients. It is never our intention to mess with their good moods, nor is it our practice, if things need adjusting later on, to avoid digging in as deep as may be necessary and finding a once-and-for-all solution to whatever the problem might be. The project on display in this set of four brief videos is living proof that
One of the least heralded factors in pond health is also among the most significant: It's all about oxygen, writes Ed Beaulieu, who reviews the basics while offering some suggestions on how to keep it's level up where it needs to be to make both fish and plants happy.
Ponds are often valued for being uniquely calming and comforting. But for a child with autism, these watershapes can also be therapeutic in a number of ways. That's wonderful news for these kids, Mike Gannon observes -- and great for their families as well.
What we have here is essentially three stories rolled into one. Partly, it's about what happens when a well-established company steps beyond its comfort zone with a major renovation project that involves an unusually large set of unknowns. It's also about what can happen to a property when an old, large, man-made pond system breaks down, time passes and the space reverts to a wild, natural state. And it's about what's involved in pulling a failed
