labor

Luxury Liners
Just one question is covered in "Ask the Pond Digger" this time, in response to a gentleman who asked me to compare reinforced polyethylene (RPE) and ethylene propylene diene monomer (EPDM) liners for use in ponds.  I get this one all the time, from do-it-yourselfers looking to save some money - and from professionals who
Cascading Exertion
Earlier in this sequence of articles and videos, I mentioned how much I enjoy the fact that pond installation is an improvisational art form:  You can roll through a design in your head and sketch it until your pencils are worn to nubs, but the reality is that working with boulders is a process of placement and on-site adjustment that ultimately brings a design vision to life. That's particularly true with waterfalls, which is why this single part of the series encompasses four videos and nearly 40 minutes of running time.  And as you will notice, there are probably more
Every Day Is Halloween
Consider the way I spent my time yesterday: I had breakfast in an upscale eatery to discuss teaching a class. I went through a phone interview with a publication’s editor. I hung up the phone and headed over to a job site I knew would be a total mess after a night that had given us an unexpected inch of rain. Adding to the uncertainty, I was to
Stone Practicalities
In typical construction projects, we use stone for lots of purposes – as pavers, veneers or naturalistic landscape outcroppings, for instance. We also use plenty of stone in crafting the surfaces and banks and the areas surrounding our watershapes. But far and away the most common use for this material is in the building of