garden design
Atlantic Water Gardens (Mantua, OH) has introduced fiberglass replicas of basalt columns for use as…
Since the very beginning, WaterShapes has been a strong advocate for the importance of working in context and making certain that what's done with a watershape, its landscape and various exterior amenities all align in fairly specific ways with the architecture of a home and the nature of its surroundings. I'm all for that in principle and toe the line carefully in almost all of the projects I pursue. But it's only almost, because in select sets of circumstances, creating
I’ve spent enough time exploring Los Angeles that I’ve found a few underappreciated gems in my time – at least so far as watershaping is concerned. One of them is Suiho En, the “Garden of Water and Fragrance” – otherwise known as “the Japanese Garden next to the water-treatment plant.” It’s an unusual location for such a contemplative space – six-and-a-half acres of
It usually catches people off guard when I say so, but when it comes to building dry-stacked stone walls, the installer’s awareness of local climate and soil conditions is paramount to a project’s success. It’s about more than materials, in other words, or more than
We water and landscape professionals literally shape the outdoor environments in which we work – cutting grades, building walls, planting trees, installing pools, ponds and fountains and preparing patios, decks, planting beds and lighting systems. In designing these outdoor-living spaces, we spend the bulk of our time
“Landscaping is not a complex and difficult art to be practiced only by high priests. In any age of reason, it is the owner who . . . decides . . . the garden and the purposes for which it will be used.” These words from landscape architect Thomas Church’s seminal book, Gardens Are for People, ring as true today as they did when they were first published in 1955. Gardens truly are for people, and while that’s manifestly an obvious statement, it seems to be a concept that insufficient numbers of today’s watershape and landscape designers fully grasp. That’s nothing new. More than half a century ago, in fact, Church was motivated to
For a long time now, I've been dismayed by what I see when certain of my fellow watershapers attempt to incorporate "natural" elements into their pool designs. The ubiquitous piles of rocks and the odd grottos slapped onto the ends of freeform pools are so common I can only conclude that
Not long ago, I did a pair of columns on healing gardens and their benefits. If you’ll recall, I preached the importance of persuading hospitals in particular to include these spaces in their overall site plans as a means of providing garden environments for patients, patients’ families and hospital staff: These spaces reduce stress, help patients heal more quickly and give everyone who visits them a soothing sense of tranquility. I’ve attempted to the greatest extent possible to practice what I preached, and through the years I’ve installed numerous health-specific gardens at local assisted-living centers, Alzheimer’s care facilities and even at a center for emotionally-challenged children. But truth be told, I haven’t met with much success with our local hospitals, despite the fact that healing gardens have caught on with countless such facilities coast to coast. I don’t know quite why this is, but we
