awareness

Global Watershaping
'Have you had just about enough of the current chatter about the environment?  Have the terms "global warming," "carbon footprint" and "sustainable landscape" become more irritating to you than they are inspiring?  If so,' wrote Mark Holden in his Currents column for February 2010, 'all I can say is that I don't think you'll like the future.' 'In fact, the green movement . . . is rapidly on its way to becoming a mainstay of our shared cultural consciousness.  While there are certain political and social aspects of the discussion that
2018/8.2, August 22 — Playing the Angles, Grand Landshaping, Halprin in L.A. and more
THE ESSENTIAL E-NEWSLETTER FOR WATERSHAPE DESIGNERS, ENGINEERS AND BUILDERS August 22, 2018 www.watershapes.com FEATURE ARTICLE…
Coping with Salt
In my work as a construction-defect expert witness, I've seen how damaging salty water can be to hardscape materials around pools and spas equipped with saltwater chlorination systems.  It's so common that, personally, I now try to avoid using those devices on the watershapes I design and build.   It's not that I think saltwater chlorination is intrinsically evil; instead, it's the fact I've seen so many different things go wrong with watershapes that have these systems that I decided some time ago that they weren't for me. It's often said that
2012/7.2, July 25 — Whimsical Design, Vanishing Edges, Inspiring Waterfalls and more
July 25, 2012 WATERSHAPES.COM ESSENTIAL Serious Whimsy Developing watershapes and landscapes for residential clients can…
Therapy Power
  For centuries, human beings have turned to immersion and exercise in water as a means of healing injuries and illnesses and of promoting both physical and mental health.  Researchers have investigated the hows and whys of these phenomena for years, and the benefits seem to be even more remarkable than originally thought.  There's still much to learn, but there's already more than enough good news for watershapers to share with motivated clients.   (Photos © Dreamstime)  
New Revivals
As landscape professionals, most of us seek not only to innovate and drive the industry to new levels, but also endeavor as necessary to learn about basic design principles and styles that have inspired and ignited design movements in past centuries. By studying the range of architectural and landscape styles that have gone before us, we learn to use historical cues to guide us in our current tasks.  At the same time, our knowledge of what was done in the past positions us to develop variations on themes and do things
A New Sensitivity
I found a new "favorite" plant last summer.  It's called Dalechampia dioscorefolia, otherwise known as the Costa Rican Butterfly Vine.  Its stunningly beautiful, exotic flowers were unlike those on any of the vines I typically see at nurseries and easily earned a place in my disorganized (and experimental) backyard garden. Given its unique beauty, I placed it on a trellis directly outside my bedroom window so I could see it every day and observe its progress.  After a few months of growth, it was still quite floppy and had not wrapped itself around places high enough on the trellis for my liking. So one Saturday, I went out and wrestled apart many of the branches of the vine that had wrapped around themselves and set them up to reach