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Show# 29/2503
Beautiful Park, Great Gardening Tips

Planning A Water Feature

Mark mentioned water and water is one of the most prominent features throughout the garden. Eric is always impressed when visiting with the fact that this park is surrounded on all sides by very busy streets. Accordingly, the water features have been designed with a tremendous amount of motion. There is falling water throughout and it does an amazing job of deadening all the street noise so that when one walks into the Park, it's very tranquil, a wonderful place to relax. And that is exactly how it was designed. And the neat thing is these concepts apply at home, as well. One may have a noisy street, even a noisy neighbor, and want to cover up some of that noise. Although the large feature behind them, a reflecting pool, is not on a scale most homeowners can utilize they do have other water gardens. The next water feature is also on a much larger scale than one a homeowner would have but it presents some great design ideas. The basic thought behind water features is the same. Here they've developed a water feature that replicates nature as closely as possible. It is a replication of Panther Creek in North Georgia and the rocks and falling water provide a sense that you're back in nature. And it covers traffic noise, providing peace and tranquility. When designing a water feature you want to go big and bold. The biggest mistake Mark sees people making is using rocks that are too small and using too many rocks. Here they have large, big, bold rocks that make a statement. Also, you see a lot of water flowing here. One needs to consider how much water capacity you have. A pond that's undersized will evaporate off water, it will be dry a lot, so the water capacity is an important consideration. This water feature requires a lot of water but this is a 21 acre park. They take their well water, pump it out of the ground, then put it in the water garden, which acts as their above ground cistern. They then irrigate from it. But it's not enough to water everything if they don't pay attention to the plants. They let the plants tell them when they want to be watered. They look for signs of wilt on the turf grass, they watch for the plants to tell them when they want to be watered and that's when they apply water. They don't just run the irrigation system because it's the scheduled day to run it.


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