Landscape & Natural Waterfalls – A Professional Admirer’s View

Inasmuch as we specailize in water features of all types, I will make some general comments here, then break them down into categories in future posts. But first, let’s take a stroll and see what it is about waterfalls that so catches our fancy:

(these are made to view enlarged – left click to do so, maybe even twice, for more detail)

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Nature gives us these incredible sights which focus the senses, get us wet and still just fill us up with wonder.

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We see Chaos and Order at once in the most raw natural waterfalls, as if Nature Herself made a miscalculation and She wants to remind us of the sheer destructive and awesome power of water itself. The sheer volume of noise alone makes you need to shout to be heard and silences even the busiest mouth (Quite a handy Nature Trip for some who will remain nameless 😉 ):

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We look over the top of these – at our most curious – and we see why they exist and how unassuming they seem, wandering their way to such a ‘falling’ pass – then becoming something else entirely besides “just some swollen creek”.

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Getting closer quiets the mind and reveals more – and we love it, wanting that at “our place!”

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This one could be rough to imitate, in the end. This one you can walk under – (It’s Silver Falls in Oregon.)

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There is truly nothing like the sound and motion of water in a landscape. Absolutely nothing outside of earthquakes and volcanos. Nature makes a scene with all those rushing and deafening roars or even its smaller lush and strangely full-throated gurgling sounds. Those of brooks or even the larger cascading monsters are all possible to reenact in a landscape, right out one’s own door. Well – that is, to a degree. In terms of sizes, we can manually construct some wild stuff, especially these days with the advent of all the tricky machinery at hand not only used for the construction itself but also for the amazingly efficient and long-lasting pumps we can produce to motor that water over an edge.  Here is a diesel-powered waterfall I once worked on:

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And here is a City Scape – (same theme, water, water, water and lots of it, running fast!) – this is Ira Keller Falls in Portland, Oregon, with a skinny-dipping bloke, waiting for his opportunity. I can’t take this guy anywhere, I swear:

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But, frankly, the chances are great we will end up settling for less at home. This, of course, is just a guess 😉

More manageable, not quite so deafening, we opt for the same wonder, just on a different scale. Yes, we do Formal as well as Natural:

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More natural:

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The process is actually rather simple, in a way, with some decided conundrums, but many folks have done their own water features and of course landscapes quite admirably and successfully. Indeed, for those who are inclined, some of the very best water features I have ever seen are those of “puttering” homeowners.
Like all landscaping projects, constructing a waterfall system, no matter of what ilk, whether formal or natural, requires intensive labor. Excavations are required, rocks and liners placed, cement work, electrical puzzles need fixing as well as the many and varied engineering problems which have to be borne in mind, including settling of soils after excavation and the new weight of water itself.
Professionals who specialize in such constructions know most of these various items to watchful of.  Splash loss, for example, the subsequent water replacement, their times and duration. Indeed, even the replacement system iself, are huge issues unless one wants to consider manually filling his water with a garden hose daily in Summer when evaporation is such an issue.
In short, don’t let me misstate things – water features are fairly complex. They possess many puzzles, some which only appear later for the unwary. It must be said too – Add that they are costly. An installation of a water feature is a “marriage”, of sorts with the constructor. One wants to know those who constructed it and who are now most familiar with its installation will be around in later seasons to help guide the homeowner in the proper direction for maintenance issues. Having said this, a curious client and student can teach himself darn near all he needs to know. It isn’t rocket surgery, after all.

Musical Interlude – Manitas de Plata – With Dali Added

I’m recirculating this one. I have added an extra treat below, complete with the live and red hot Salvador Dali. 😉

I absolutely adore this guy. To me, he is the greatest guitarist who ever lived. Born in a Gypsy Gitano caravan in southern France, Manitas de Plata became famous for his guitar work at a young age. Upon hearing him play in 1964, Pablo Picasso is said to have exclaimed “that man is of greater worth than I am!” and proceeded to draw on the guitar. An American manager obtained a booking for him to play a concert in Carnegie Hall in New York in December 1965.

In New York, Manitas de Plata, who was illiterate, represented Europe at the yearly gala of the United Nations.

He still tours and he is one of the fathers of the Gipsy Kings, a fabulous group of musicians enjoyed the world over. This is a bit long, but it does not take long to get a feel for his tremendous gift. Enjoy!

As promised:

Waterfall, Creek, Pathway and Landscape Construction

(click images to enlarge – they get bigger if you click again – most of them)

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This is the front yard of the project in question. Those exceptionally healthy-looking Ponderosa Pines tell us we are quite a bit above Reno, Nevada. In fact, it is well on the route to Lake Tahoe via the highway which tops the hill about 15 miles later at 9,900 feet above sea level.

This clients were an older couple who were based both in San Diego and Reno. The man of the house had an extremely active interest in the landscape. He also had his “wish list” of items – he wanted a nice, roaring water feature off his back deck, a walkway bisecting the back yard with turnabouts/patios at each end and – he was adamant – a vineyard. He also wanted a gas-fed fire pit in one of the patios. The goal was to “complete” the total yard. Our interest therefore was pretty much completely out back where he often entertained and sat and considered ponderous thoughts like “Will Steve drink another wine?” 😉  Great guy, generous but really involved. Anyway, so we went to work. We paved our way to the back yard with an access road and carried all you see 100′ to the “back 20”.

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Pictures of this project pick up from the point of construction of the waterfall set at the back of his thin but 150 feet wide back yard. The falls sets up the running water in the creek and it is a rambunctious one, running a good rate of water with some serious sound qualities. From the raised deck above, I rate the sound factor as a home run. It is throaty and deep, but not overwhelming so no one has to raise a voice to be heard. I sort of regret not taking earlier pictures, but it should be fairly obvious that we did our typical build. Liner underneath and rocks placed to give as naturalistic a picture as possible. I also wanted the river course itself to be deep, so I excavated more than usual. I was interested in hiding underwater lighting under the water at various points and the raised level of observation would compromise that. It made for an interesting depth which somehow seemed more real than many others, as if formed from a true chasm.

Work also proceeded at other locations while we constructed the falls and creek.

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As is obvious, it began getting cold. We were on the verge of Winter when we got underway and it did not disappoint. Just the same, planting in these conditions is still fine. At the very end is our “vineyard”. It also shows an antique wagon tucked in behind that we picked up at some second hand dealer and carted back to the job site on a trailer. It was pricey but it was effective. It gave an Old West sort of ambiance to the overall project which we later exploited with a wagon wheel or two in the landscape. The grape plants, by the way, grew from the day we put them in. Grapes really do have a remarkable growth rate when happy and – the fact is – they get happy in some pretty bad soils. Grapes are a landscaper’s friend, in my opinion. That is a reliable plant. These were green grapes, climatically suited for the Reno alkaline soils as well as the hard-freezing climate conditions. They simply thrived here. There was a monster crop at the end of the first year.

Here’s a late season look at the vineyard and the wagon on a dark November day as we hustle to try and get the stamped concrete walk in place. The flags and paint represent the excavations to come.

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We begin excavating and calling for cement. It takes a couple of days to get everything set up just right. The excavated material, by the way, will be used to set a bearm to the creekward side of the walkway-to-be.

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We got blessed by great and surprising amounts of sunshine for the period of the project and there were smiles all around. I remember worrying about some weather front which missed us. The set up took an extra day. There’s more work here than it appears! 🙂

Finally, we got it poured and our walkway was now completed.

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We re-graded and smoothed out the bearms and planted some more plants, but we basically took off for the Winter after most of this. The next time we came back was about 3 months later.

Here’s a shot of one of the wagon wheels along with a wide angle look at the creek and the final basin (where the pump is) itself:

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However, we did get a marvelously sunny day to get some pics before leaving.

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When Spring rolled around, we were suddenly able to finish things. We had grass to lay, mulch to put in, more lighting to tweak, fertilizing on the mind, salvaging a couple of Winter-damaged plants – the usual Springtime stuff. We put in the grass in short order:

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Things were very much taking shape now. We were on a definite finishing roll.

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My buddy and work mate Raoul and I stand somewhat triumphantly over our “slain dragon”. This is the finished look at the source of the creek and the noise.

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Another shot and one I feature in this blog a few other places. It’s a particular favorite because I think it reflects my sensibility about the “depth issue” of the creek as a slow moving but still-substantial artifice, as natural as we could make it. Yup, that is another wagon wheel!

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A look at the Main Patio, at the opposite end of the property from the vineyard and wagon. This one has that gas-fed fire pit in the center, yet still has room for tables and chairs. Yes, I had some fun with the boulders, as usual. The “cut” between the boulders in the distance essentially drains the property in the event of overdoes of precipitation. It has a small rock creek dry bed of some real gorgeous river rocks. Plus, it works!

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This was a design and build home run, one of my favorite ever projects. Not only were the people great but they allowed some license and were proud of the overall accomplishment. They also had a stash of incredibly good wine. Oh wait – I said that.

Anyway, here’s what it looked like in Autumn – and, yes, we did plant for it. Thise spectacular maples are by design. Down at the end are the grapes after one year. What’d I tell you? 😉

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Tree Planting Techniques – A Subtle Art

Interestingly, modern recommendations in tree-planting have become much more “Nativistic” regarding soils. Whereas, the ’70’s and ’80’s had everyone running for copious amounts of compost and better materials for the bedding of new plantings, current thinking has changed. In a way, it is actually more casual. Anyway, the reasons make sense. I also have to believe a smarter selectivity of species puts this idea over the top in terms of credibility as well. Landscape designers and even DIY homeowners do enough – or should do anyway – reading these days to be acquainted with Zonal tolerances. This is a huge concept, as the many folks digging up and replacing what looked so great for a year or two have found out.

(Left click any image to enlarge – they are designed for this larger view)

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In the end, the “simplicity” referred to above indicates these days that planting in native soils is by far the most intelligent method of planting. A “native soil” is the dirt you already have. Heck, it could have come from down the road or about anywhere at all, but it is what a homeowner must refer to as “native” because it’s what he’s got. There, that solves a definition! 😉  And these can most certainly vary wildly in terms of Ph, clay content and draining issues and, unfortunately – contaminants. In this case, I don’t use the “C” word with respect to much of anything more than the typical spills of diesel, oils and hydraulics that come from any job site where the earth has been adjusted or added by an excavation. But I mention it from first-hand experience – and disappointing experience at that. To wit:

In my experience, my nursery suppliers used to wait long periods for me to bring back some poor dead plant. They were always sort of surprised when I did and they were always more than delighted to replace them for free, simply owing to the fact that I made them live pretty much more than just about anyone else. But everyone has a “turkey”, I reckon. I had a large Scotch Pine we had planted in a hugely prominent area which always seemed to plain lag in development. In fact, it was a one way visit to Dead, the truth was. It surprised me because my record for successfully planting the huge specimens I loved dealing with was pretty much 100%. Well, we undid the guy wires and staking, dug the sucker out at great pain and finally replaced it with a gorgeous replacement – which started going downhill, almost immediately. The needles yellowed, making me wonder if we had not over watered it somehow. We went to the drastic moves, one at a time. Adding Superthrive (a great refurbishing root hormone with crazy art work on the little bottles), then adding some M-Roots, another tactic which literally regrows an alternative root system. Ugh – nothing worked and she blinked out on us. It was obviously in the dirt.

It turns out, yes, it was. Somehow, the area of this soil was so utterly concentrated with diesel, hydraulic fluid and the rest that we found out it was indeed the spot where all the machinery had been serviced for the entire neighborhood during the initial excavations. Obviously – and too late – we discovered what a simple soil analysis which cost a red hot $25 told us – that the soil was poison. Anyway, we took more samples as we excavated, discarded and completely replaced the soil and we were golden. The next tree we replanted grew nicely and is still looking good today. So here are 2 lessons: don’t take your soil for granted and don’t hesitate to get it analyzed. For the record, no matter how many amendments we may have added for this tree, the roots would have eventually discovered this little Mine of Death.

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Eventually, every single plant escapes the “planting zone” where it was initially planted. From that point on, what is native is what will either sustain it or kill it. Yes, I most definitely augment my plantings with some amending components. Inasmuch as most of any landscaper’s products come, pampered and spoiled, from nurseries, one wants to lessen the shock of transplantation. So I add the obligatory Vitamin B, even sometimes toss in some Super Thrive or a bit of root hormone just to get them going. I over-excavate as well, for sure. Loosening the soil for a young plant is merely smart. There are some stunning compaction levels in even the most regular soils, particularly if they have a severe clay content. That density can definitely retard a plant’s rooting process, so some over excavation is definitely called for – usually about twice the size of the root ball itself. Now this can mean some real digging!

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Now THAT’s a root ball!

I will also admit that certain soils I encounter need less than the hearty monster excavations. Softer soils can accommodate a virtual slit planting for success. Water and grab a beer.

In the end, successful planting requires just a bit of forethought and some luck. Needless to say watering is a huge key at the onset. I actually rarely fertilize my young trees and plants, outside of some liquid additives. such as the hormones and Vitamin B I mentioned to lessen the shock. I did have good luck using water soluble fertilizers, especially at planting times when the blooms were about to burst. A little Miracle Gro, which is almost immediately systemically-absorbed, can be reflected in mere days with a glorious result. But this is more salesmanship and client-stroking than the more long-term effects we are most definitely looking for.

Here – below –  is a bad scan only a landscaper could like. This is the 10 acre residence I have spoken of often enough in here – the one which had a semi-catastrophic rain and snow event which required much regrading – next door. We got all his water plus the hillside above which stretched for countless acres. It was The Deluge. Anyway, you can see we planted in virtual “dust” from looking at the hillside itself. You can also see the style and sizes of the plants we planted with regularity in the line-up of root balled Cherries and Crab’s in the bottom picture. We got about a truck a day for a while with about 3 times the amount of plants shown there. The large Sequoia in the “root ball picture” above was also for this property. It was 22 feet high and absolutely gorgeous. Planting was absurdly easy here and the fact is, aside from The Deluge, everything grew like crazy.

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Nor did I add anything to that soil. It is a lake basin-type soil, soft and non-clayish, mostly very sandy. It required severe adjustments in terms of watering, however, where we settled for watering often after initial deep waterings, as opposed to watering for sustained periods. That’s another useful trick – an analysis of soil can determine watering frequencies. Clay-ish soils will require far, far less water than sandier types.

Needless to say, by the way, everything mentioned about trees applies to plants. Yes, all plants very in their particular needs, thus some research is still required for Zonal tolerances. But it can be quite surprising which plants can literally adjust, with maintenance – or lack thereof. The Variegated dogwood shrubs, for example, adapt to Reno, Nevada’s high-alkaline typically near-desert soils by dropping their leaves and by those leaves breaking down, supplying a natural rise in acidic levels by a natural process.

And some patience is most definitely required as we let them develop. After all, the pictures below show the difference two short years makes in a landscape.

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Two years later:

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Yes, you can have your cake and eat it too!

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Or you can also hire out a few million guys and build your own irrigation system, just like Julius Caesar did! 😉

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