debris
'As fall looms before us,' noted Stephanie Rose in kicking off her Natural Companions column in the September 2000 issue of WaterShapes, 'it's timely to consider a question that should be a factor in every design we prepare: To drop or not to drop?' 'This question is a good one to ask before you start planning and has to do with how much natural debris your clients will be willing to fish out of their watershapes once you're gone. In other words, while it's always important to decide
It's a plain fact: Nothing cools the affection of a new owner faster than confronting an under-equipped swimming pool's need for lots of routine maintenance. He or she doubtless wanted the watershape for the good times it would provide; vacuuming the walls and floors and skimming leaves off the surface were definitely not part of the conceptual bargain. That's why, as this video relates, it's so important to include some form of automatic cleaning system along with the pool right from the start. Yes, there are
If there’s one thing all ponds and lakes have in common (beyond the obvious fact that they all contain water), it’s that they’re as different as snowflakes – highly idiosyncratic, often challenging and sometimes almost willful in the way they resist being manipulated. For the past 35 years, we at Diversified Waterscapes (Laguna Niguel, Calif.) have just about seen it all as specialists in maintaining man-made ponds and lakes and in remediating those that have fallen on hard times and suffer with severe problems. We’ve found that every situation is different and that figuring out what’s going on involves the evaluation of countless variables – some obvious and easy to read, others less so. For all that, our experience tells us that the serviceability and sustainability of ponds and lakes is for the most part determined long before we come on the scene – even before they are filled with water. When they’ve been designed and installed with a few key principles in mind, we find them to be cooperative and affordably manageable. If a few of the more common mistakes are made, however, it’s a completely different and far nastier
