moving water

The sound of water moving through the landscape adds something special to any backyard, offering a powerful aesthetic component to even the simplest of designs. These auditory enhancements evoke strong images, emotions and associations even from casual or occasional observers, notes landscape designer and watershaper Rick Anderson, who suggests that the 'aural factor' should be considered from the very beginning of the design phase.

Soothing Sounds

All too often, the purchasers of a home (new or old) find a garden space stripped of any natural feel. Large lot or small, they sense no "connection" to the land - only a bleak space devoid of vegetation or any sort of overhead canopy and lacking the finishing touches that draw them out of the confines of the home to enjoy what usually represents the majority of their real estate. From my perspective, the best way to generate this connection to the land is through the creation of ponds, streams and waterfalls in these backyard settings. Such features bring a more natural look and feel to residential garden spaces and instill a sense of connectedness. And whether customers pick up this sense consciously or subconsciously does not matter: What matters is that they somehow know it, that they feel it. Plantings are a big part of this picture, but I lean heavily on watershapes to create connections because of