The Element of Water in the Landscape
Water is a key element when designing your landscape. That’s my opinion, and I regard my opinion very highly. If you don’t integrate water into your landscape design you are missing the boat. Throughout gardening history water has played a very important role. Water can be invigorating – adding energy and excitement – or Zen-like when incorporated into the overall plan. A rushing waterfall, a trickling stream or a flaccid pond adorned with waterlilies will add a special feel to your garden.
Asian gardens, famous for their water features, have inspired landscape and garden designers for many years in New England. When I designed landscapes the first thing I thought of was how water would play into the design. I’d look at a raw landscape and visualize a waterfall or fish pond or some sort of water feature before I even started worrying about where the plants would go. I’d make it the central focus of the design and build the rest of the landscape and gardens around the water. Of course there are many other variables to consider and the list is long, but this simplistic approach always brought water into the conversation with my clients. All the other design factors could be worked out once water became my clients’ focus. On a rare occasion a water feature could not be worked into the landscape.
A water feature may be passive or it may be highly interactive. A contemplative water feature, still and reflective is the essence of the Zen-like attributes of an Asian garden. Instilling this meditative feature into your garden will offer you and your garden visitors hours of tranquility. However, making your water feature interactive will bring vitality to your garden. A raised water garden that you can walk by at belt level or sit down beside, allowing you to put your hands into the water or to feed fish at eye-level can be exhilarating to the soul. Cascading waterfalls or rushing streams add emotion to a potentially stoic landscape, yet they still may add a meditative and hypnotic characteristic to your garden.
The lay of the land doesn’t necessarily dictate the water feature, but the size of the area to be landscaped definitely determines what kinds of water features can be integrated into the design. A trickling water feature in a small garden, a gentle waterfall in a larger garden or a dynamic cascading waterfall forming into a stream and winding its way to a larger body of water which might contain Koi or at the least floating and marginal plants. Water is a life force that resonates in karma necessary to our very existence.
