Terry L. Ettinger Horticulture Consulting Services
Meeting The Needs Of Today With A Vision For The Future
Landscape Project Gallery
Pools & Ponds
For several years after moving into their Village of Skaneateles home, the owners were content to leave their large backyard open as a practice space for their soccer and lacrosse playing children
(at right).
However, after their graduation from high school, the couple wanted to make the backyard more conducive to entertaining
- and cooling off during the heat of
midsummer!
My interpretation of their
desires resulted in the design and installation of a free-form “gunnite”
(i.e., concrete) swimming pool painted black, edged with large slabs of native limestone and surrounded by masses of meadow-like perennials and ornamental grasses to create a soft, “pond”-like setting
(at right).
Also, a curvilinear, 750 square foot Pennsylvania bluestone patio was added to provide additional outdoor space for entertaining and access to the swimming pool.
Meanwhile,
to visually "connect" the swimming pool to the interior of the home,
a waterfall and stream was installed immediately below a breakfast
nook window (at right). The stream, flowing under a stone slab
bridge, leads the eye to a waterfall that spills into the swimming
pool.
The
destination of the stream described above is a three foot deep
bog/pond that separates the swimming pool from the bluestone patio
(at right). The intent of the pond is to provide additional
separation of the swimming pool from the home while also adding
additional seasonal color from hardy waterlilies, lotus,
pickeralweed, cardinalflower and other aquatic and marginal plants.