Bruce Zaretsky Archives

Straight Talk

Bruce Zaretsky opened his very first On the Level column back in August 2007 with a question: ‘Does the size of a project or its budget correlate with its creativity or quality?’ ‘I know many of us have clients who think that way, believing the more money they spend, the better product they’re going to get,’ he wrote. ‘And my best guess is that there are

Sustaining Sustainability

An Interview by Lenny Giteck Sustainability may be a hot buzzword in the world of landscaping these days, but Bruce Zaretsky is no Johnny Appleseed-come-lately to the concept. According to Zaretsky — owner of Zaretsky and Associates, a landscape design, installation and consulting firm near Rochester, New York, and a frequent contributor to the pages of WaterShapes — he's been concerned with sustainability throughout his entire landscaping career. "I've always tried to be careful with resources and less invasive to the environment," Zaretsky says. "For instance, whenever I would replace a brick patio for a client, I'd never throw out the old bricks; I'd always leave them at the road, on a wood palette, so other people could take them. The palettes themselves — I'd either

2013/1.2, January 23 — Desert Delights, Weathering Winter, Self-Contained Wall Fountains and more

January 23, 2013 …

Feeling Grateful

Back in the day when WaterShapes was primarily a magazine and only marginally an Internet entity, I had a group of fine people around me. In fact, at the time we shifted from mostly print to all-digital after releasing our July 2011 edition, the same team had put together every edition of the magazine for more than a dozen years. It was a merry crew, and one of my most pleasant tasks each year was