Pond Design - Metal Entryway Pond
Learn how this pond was constructed and installed on this modern landscape design project
A video transcript featuring Joseph Huettl, Huettl Landscape Architecture
On this project, Joe Remick, the architect, had the idea of a linear water element near the front door and with this bridging element of ipe wood. So when we carried forward the design, we kept this element, modified it slightly. For the construction of it, we had to go with steel for a couple of reasons. One was that we wanted to have a very narrow-edged aesthetic, and the second reason was that the walls here were already in place before the water feature, so the wall footing wouldn't allow us to get a water feature adjacent to the wall. The steel allowed us to place the water feature as close to the wall as we could for that aesthetic.
We had this water feature made out of 1/8-inch-thick stainless steel, and it was craned down into place. We provided a bed of decomposed granite, a ¼-minus material that would be a soft bed for it, and we set it in place. The water feature has water lilies and then a small filtration system with a pump that creates these bubblers.
Water depth
By California code, a water feature can't be more than 18 inches deep, or it technically becomes a swimming pool. Particularly in a front entryway like this, you want to minimize hazards to small children. In this particular case, this water feature is only 12 inches deep. Of course a child could drown in four inches of water, but the more shallow you go, the safer you are in general. The downside of going with shallow water is it's more subject to temperature fluctuations and water quality issues with the sunlight and algae. In this water feature, they have a surface growth of duckweed, which to a certain extent is desirable. It just has to be harvested or it gets out of hand.
Planters
In these planters adjacent to the water feature, we were able to take advantage of the fact that this planter was completely surrounded by concrete and we could do a horsetail. Normally you must be very careful when dealing with equisetum (horsetail), because it's very invasive. So by having it in a contained concrete planter, we're able to use horsetail. At the end of the water feature, we had a grove of Egyptian papyrus. In this climate, they are susceptible to freezing. So these are the resprouts to the original planting that froze.
