Santa Cruz Landscaping: Pergola in Felton #2

We set the posts and lifted the beams today.

We shopped around the county to find some really nice Con-Heart  Redwood. We think it's not only a beautiful wood, but also a practical choice for this arbor. We had to wrestle with the Wisteria vines a little to get the beams in, but once we set them, everything really started to take shape. Check out these pictures & the ones below.

Santa Cruz Landscaping: Pergola in Felton, Ca.

We started a new landscaping project today in Felton, which is just outside of Santa Cruz, in the mountains.

My client contacted me to replace his pergola/ carport. This project is unique because the pergola has a very old Wisteria vine growing around it. The pergola itself is probably 50 years old. So the removal and construction will require us to carefully brace the Wisteria vines until we can lay them down onto the new construction. 

As with all the older woodwork that we replace in the Santa Cruz mountains, I like to study the wood that was used to construct the feature. Sometimes it is a fence, a deck, retaining wall or arbor, I always find it interesting that some of the old Redwood lasts for so long.

Some of the wood we removed today was still strong, some of it was rotten to the core. 

We will be replacing the pergola in almost the same footprint as the old one. The fencing around the yard will also be replaced.

So far we are having fun! I will post some more progress pics later.

Santa Cruz Landscaping: Boulder Placement

I have always enjoyed hiking and spending time in the woods. I love hiking in the Santa Cruz Mountains, especially on less traveled trails. I have also spent time in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, and the deserts of New Mexico. I purposely seek out high rock outcroppings and large boulders when I am hiking. I love sitting next to a boulder or on top of a grouping of rocks. I am humbled by their timeless strength and peaceful presence.

In my landscape designs, I always try to incorporate artistic boulder placement in the project. Whether its a grouping of boulders in a garden, a large boulder placed in a water feature, or a stand alone boulder feature. 
I take my time in choosing each rock that I will place in the garden. I look at the features and characteristics of the boulder, and I imagine it in the garden with plant life around it. 

Cactus Garden Pathway

This is a feature we did on the West side of Santa Cruz. It was an existing cactus garden that we installed a small pathway through.

At one point in the path, we placed a large flat stone, and carried the pathway around it. The garden itself housed many 50-100 year old cactus and Agave plants. So we chose this stone to look as if it was a huge buried boulder that had been unearthed by the weather over hundreds of years. This took an eye for choosing the right rock, as well as for placing it. For the pathway, we chose a stone that is native to the Arizona dessert. It is a path stone or flagstone that is harvested from the surface. Most flagstone is harvested in sheets that are excavated from under the ground. This stone has been weathered over time and even has lichen and moss growing on it. It went well with the ancient look we were shooting for.

I also enjoy placing large boulders in a water feature. It gives the feature a more balanced and aged look. 
Having a variety of sizes of stone in a waterfall helps it to blend in and look natural. 


I still have a lot to learn about setting boulders in a landscape, I enjoy it a lot and I will keep studying and learning as I go. 
www.livingwaterslandscaping.com

Santa Cruz Landscaping: A Bit of Landscaping History

Here's a bit of history on the art of Landscaping. Landscaping isn't just making a yard look better it really is an art form; or at least it is for us, our landscaping in Santa Cruz is more than rearranging dirt, it's art. (This article was taken from: Wikipedia.)

Thales the Father of Landscaping

"Landscaping is both science and art. This requires both good observation and design skills. A good landscaper understands the elements of nature and construction, and blends them accordingly.

Thales, an early Greek philosopher known for his view that "all is water," spent a considerable time thinking about the nature and scope of landscaping. Some of his students believed that in order for human activity to be considered landscaping, it must be directed toward modifying the physical features of the land itself, including the cultivation and/or manipulation of plants or other flora. Thales rejected this notion, arguing that any aspect of the material world affecting our visual perception of the land was a proper subject for landscaping. Both Plato and Aristotle praised Thales' analysis as a model for philosophy. In the early 20th century, British philosopher G.E. Moore cited Thales' reasoning as one of the few historical examples of how philosophical inquiry has led to genuine human understanding and progress.

Philosophers in the 17th century debated whether visual beauty was a necessary goal of landscaping. With the advent of the positivists by the early 20th century, however, most western philosophers had rejected the notion of an objective esthetic standard for any form of art, including landscaping. Practitioners since the mid-20th century have experimented with jarring visual panoramas that are now generally accepted, at least in western societies, as falling within the scope of landscaping."

A yard isn't just a yard when we get done with it; it's a piece of art. Thales would be proud.

Santa Cruz Landscaping: Pond Maintenance

Along with building ponds and waterfalls in Santa Cruz County, we also provide maintenance & cleaning on a variety of ponds, water features and gardens. 

We offer weekly, monthly, seasonal and one time pond maintenance.

We generally work to achieve a proper balance in the ponds we care for. This may include upgrading the existing filtration system, or a simple water change. 

We also provide pressure washing and aquatic vacuuming to ponds if needed.

A pond is a living element that requires a healthy blend of oxygen, bacteria, plant life, and mechanical filtration. When caring for & cleaning a pond, we try to diagnose the needs of a specific pond and work towards getting the pond to balance its own ecosystem. We do this by encouraging beneficial bacteria growth. Beneficial bacteria convert deadly ammonia into nitrates, which are then consumed by the aquatic plants, this is called the nitrogen cycle. Ammonia is created by excess organic matter in the pond, such as, decaying leaves and fish waste. When building a pond we will install a bottom drain and a skimmer box to separate fish waste and organic materials from the pond, which keeps our ponds very clean. We will then add a pressurized bead filter and/ or a biological filter box. Both the filter and the box are great places for beneficial bacteria to grow.  In building our ponds this way, we can move away from using chemicals and algaecides on a regular basis.

If you would like to see a pond and garden we care for, stop by the Sushi Garden in Capitola. We have been cleaning & maintaining the garden there for a couple years now. 

As always, feel free to stop by our website for more information.

www.livingwaterslandscaping.com

Santa Cruz Landscaping: Boulder Creek Koi Pond #4

Mugo Pine

Well, we finished up all the final touches on the koi pond, filtration system, irrigation and landscaping today at our Boulder Creek project just outside of Santa Cruz.

We had such a great time working on this project. Our clients are wonderful people, the job site has a beautiful view, and we were able to do some nice stone work, plantings, & other landscaping features.

Our clients were looking for a Japanese/ Asian style landscape design. This allowed us to install some nice features. A small Mugo Pine, Mondo grass, a red leaf Japanese maple and a Bamboo hedge were a few of the features.

The Bamboo hedge we planted near the entrance to the garden, has three different types of clumping Bamboo: A Golden, a Buddha's Belly and a purple stock Bamboo. These will grow together to give a beautiful display, as well as provide privacy in the garden. We chose clumping Bamboo because it will stay more contained compared to a running Bamboo. This is important for smaller garden spaces.

Entrance to the Garden

The Japanese Maple we planted will grow out over the Koi pond and give the Koi a little bit of shade in the hot summer months. Although it will shed its leaves in the fall, creating a little more maintenance, it will be a treasure to the garden and pond as it matures.

Some other features in the garden are, landscape lighting, statuary and a 650 pound Zen boulder that we placed strategically near the entrance to the garden.

My client has introduced 5 new Koi into the pond this week. They are all happy and well.

We will have some more work to do on the property this season, but for now, its off to the next landscaping project!

Santa Cruz Landscaping: Retaining Wall Los Gatos

We have had an amazingly busy January and February. This is probably our busiest yet for our landscaping company. We have been working hard on a couple of different projects this week. Here is a look at the construction of a wonderful retaining wall we are building.

Retaining Wall excavation

We are installing an Allen Block Retaining Wall in the hills above Los Gatos, which is just outside Santa Cruz. We dug out the footer and laid our base course to the retaining wall this week. This can take up about 70% of the total time in the construction of an Allen Block Retaining Wall. However, once the base course is set, the rest of the retaining wall can go up in a day!

So, we laid out our lines and dug in our footer. We all had our fair share of digging in the great Santa Cruz mountain clay! After the excavation, we set our footer of compacted drain rock and laid in our first course of block. Our clients chose the Classic AB block in the tan color, which not only make an attractive retaining wall but very secure as well.

In particular Allen Block is a great choice for retaining walls. It is functional and visually appealing. It has excellent drainage and will last a lifetime.

These retaining walls will be used to retain our clients garden space, as well as give an excellent access to their upper patio. We will also be building in two sets of stairs that will run from the lower garden to the upper patio area, which will make this landscaping project not only very functional, but beautiful as well.


If you have any questions, comments, or job requests please visit our website: www.livingwaterslandscaping.com

Santa Cruz Landscaping: Boulder Creek Koi Pond #3

Well, we are finishing up this rather fun landscaping project in Boulder Creek, which is just outside Santa Cruz. At this project we are retrofitting a Koi pond and dressing up the existing landscaping.

Grouting the pathways

The new filtration is done, the pathways are done and the planting will be done tomorrow.

As with any pond retrofit or re-build, we have found some issues that need to be cared for:
First, we finally got all the new pumps and filtration installed. This included building a new deck and retaining wall to house the pumps and filters. We have two external pumps running, one for filtration and one for the waterfalls. When we finally turned on the waterfall pump we noticed that the existing falls was leaking drastically out the back! It looked like the builder of the waterfall did the installation rather well, so I was confused as to why it was leaking.

Fixing the waterfall

So, we decided to dismantle the upper part of the waterfalls to start the troubleshoot. We quickly found the issue....
a 6 inch hole in the liner that looked like it was chewed out by a gopher or a rat!!

This can usually mean that we would have to rebuild the whole waterfall. Luckily, we only had to fix the upper falls. We pulled out the rock and installed a new biological filter box and seamed the liner to that above the hole.
It is now flowing great and our client actually likes it more then the original waterfall!!!

Our client had one koi fish left from his original pond.
It had been living in a small tank for the past 3 weeks as we finished the retrofit. Yesterday we set the koi free and he seems to love his new home.


The filtration system is running well and we are all happy with the landscaping project so far. I  look forward to seeing the pond, koi , and plant life grow and mature over the years.

6 Light 240 watt UV filter with large Advanced Bead Filter

Santa Cruz Landscaping: Boulder Creek Koi Pond #2

In my last post I was talking about a landscaping project we are working on this week outside Santa Cruz in Boulder Creek.

It is a Koi pond retrofit with some pathway work and some general landscaping.

I wanted to post some progress pictures from the pathway work we are doing. We just finished setting the stone and we will come back on Monday to grout.

We are using an Arizona Rose Select stone for the paths. We set the stone on a concrete footer and mortared it in.

 

We took care in our selection of stone and took some extra time in 'cutting in' the stone so that we could give our client a quality pathway.

Each stone was hand cut using a diamond blade on an angle grinder.

It looks a little messy now, but we will get it cleaned up next week when we grout and bring in some new plants and mulch!

www.livingwaterslandscaping.com

Santa Cruz Landscaping: Boulder Creek Koi Pond

Here are some pics of a landscaping project we are working on this week in outside of Santa Cruz in Boulder Creek, Ca.

My client contacted me to help him upgrade the filtration system in his existing Koi pond.

The pond had a skimmer box with two submersible pumps circulating water to two separate waterfalls.

We discussed the different options for retrofitting the pond to give them a more adequate filtration system. We decided to keep the existing pond in tact and upgrade the pumps and filters. 

We removed the submersible pumps and installed two 1/3 horsepower external pumps.

Pump #1 will draw water from the skimmer box and return the water to the waterfalls. This pump will only run during daylight hours.

Pump #2 will run the filtration system. This pump will draw water from two separate bottom drains and push the water through a 700 gallon bead filter and a UV filter before returning to circulation jets located in the pond.

This pump will run 24 hours a day.

 

 We also installed an aerator with two diffusers  to help circulate and add oxygen to the pond. 

In addition to the pond work, we are building a concrete retaining wall, a pump and filter housing, flagstone walkways and some basic landscaping around the pond.

We will upgrade the irrigation system and and check the low voltage landscape lighting to make sure all is working properly before we depart.

I will post some more pictures and details next week as we finish up this project.

www.livingwaterslandscaping.com

Asheville Landscaping: Water Feature Fun

I love building ponds and waterfalls. I enjoy every part of creating water features from design to finish. 
Today I wanted to post about adding fun design features to water features whether: pond, stream or waterfall. There are many ways to make your pond, stream or waterfall beautiful & functional.

A few things I like to put into water features are:

'Old World' Stone Bridge over Stream

Bridges, statuary, aquatic lighting, decks and sometimes some drift wood if you want a  natural look you might find on a trip to the beach.

A bridge is always a great water feature if it works in layout for your yard or garden. We have used stone, wood and metal to breach a gurgling stream or tranquil pond. 
 

Another great landscaping water feature is a statue that is placed correctly. This is a simple way to add a lot character to your landscape.

Remember to try and carry a theme when you are choosing a statue. In the picture below, we chose a small stone Pagoda to accent the waterfall. This was in keeping with the Japanese garden we were creating.

                                                                                       

                                                                          

Hillside Pond with 'Wine Deck'

 Another fun landscaping idea to add to your water feature is a deck. It gives a great place for relaxing by a waterfall or watching the fish frolic in the pond. I like the look and feel of adding different elements to the garden. Mixing wood, stone, water, and earth together make a feature or garden that is both functional and artistic.     

                                  

  Don't forget the aquatic and landscape lighting when planning your water feature. Aquatic lighting is always one of my favorite parts of the job. I like to get creative and put lights in little nooks and under little streams in the falls.   LED lights work great for pond and waterfall lighting because they are more energy efficient and they last much longer than halogen bulbs. 

More fun landscaping water features ideas soon to come!!

Japanese Garden  

www.livingwaterslandscaping.com