Everyone wants one, admit it. The notion of sitting back in the sun, hearing the water trickle or even roar down a falls, sipping a drink and reading a book or just being lazy and falling asleep to the soothing sound of running water appeals to us all. There is some idealized communion with nature and a fascination with water that just appeals to some native level in everyonel.

Landscapes are constructions of fantasy, pure and simple. We take a patch of Earth and transform that dirt into a finished fantastic product, a result of a collaboration. A client asks for something rather specific – the landscaper consults and, between them they design something. The talking phase consists, for me, of finding out what they want. Do they want something subtle and non-invasive? Are they aware of just how loud water is? In the end, we arrive at a concept which I then design and then install. But what are all the options?

Do they want something small and out-of-the-way like this?:

Something a bit more grand?

Or something in between, like some slow, meandering stream, perhaps??

I’ll develop more of this and the theme itself over the next few days. These are a true sort of Holy Grail for landscapers. Most I know of love making them, in spite of all the implicit trouble these dang things can be. The fact is, from landscapers to homeowners, everybody loves them. They draw the eye and the ear and they just soothe the soul like little else.