Pond Beginnings

Several months ago, a big idea crossed my mind and wouldn’t go away.

For years now, I’ve been making videos about what I do as a pond designer and installer, and several of these recordings have appeared through WaterShapes EXTRA and WaterShapes.com in the past year or so. What if (I thought to myself), instead of covering things randomly, I switched over to a systematic approach and took the whole process of pond design and installation on a step-by-step basis and really went into detail on everything involved?

I couldn’t see any reason not to explore the idea, so I mapped things out and soon saw that I was getting myself into a couple dozen video segments that would stretch out over several hours. That was a bit intimidating, but I like a challenge and started recording almost immediately.

I had two goals. First, I wanted to make the series a tool that professionals and project managers could use to introduce their staffs to the ins and outs of the process. The way I figured it, even if all the boss does is tell a room full of people that he or she thinks I’m doing certain things wrong, the videos would still serve a valid educational purpose. But believe me, the thought that these videos might be used in this way made me highly conscious of doing everything the best way I knew how.

I also wanted to make the series accessible to homeowners who might be interested in tackling such a project – either on their own or with a professional’s help. On the one hand, we wanted to be thorough enough that hard-core do-it-yourselfers would be satisfied; on the other, we wanted less physically ambitious homeowners to be armed with information and questions that would help them get the best possible results in working with a contractor.

So let’s get to it: Click here to watch the first of the videos, this one on preliminary design steps and pond layout.

Eric Triplett is founder and chief executive officer at The Pond Digger Waterscape Design & Construction in Yucaipa, Calif. He may be reached at eric@the ponddigger.com.