DESIGNER SHOWCASE - NATURAL HILLSIDE POND
WATER GARDEN NEWS, Magazine
OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2006
Owners of a multi-million dollar residential home in Chattanooga, Tennessee, sought to revamp their entire backyard in order to create a serene, tranquil oasis and relaxing entertainment area for friends, colleagues and family members. They required an attractive, yet low-maintenance, natural flowing water feature that carefully blended within the existing plans for a surrounding formal outdoor living area.
Autumn Mist Aquatics took on the challenge of designing and installing this water feature consisting of a forty foot long white water mountain stream and a ten foot diameter pond with a depth of thirty-two inches and a total water feature capacity of 2,418 gallons. Construction was completed within a relatively short five-week period with one team consisting of three people and at a total cost of $24,187.00.
The team faced two major challenges with this project: (1) moving 47 tons of rock material and boulders along with heavy equipment through a relatively narrow area, flanked on one side by a natural stand of mature oak trees that would not tolerate compacted soil around their roots and on the other side by the newly refinished home exterior; and then move the equipment and materials up a fairly steep slope to the rear of the residence; and (2) installing a natural appearing water feature within the heavily wooded hillside and effectively blend the naturalistic system into the surrounding aesthetics of the planned formal outdoor living area.
Most designers will recognize that one of the most difficult situations to overcome is effectively blending two completely different design styles together and make them flow and coexist in harmony rather than conflict with one another. A third goal must also be achieved with this project; however; it was not a difficult one for our design team as we knew that Savio Engineering systems would answer this goal unchallenged. The system components had to be completely hidden from view, located in a tightly confined area and must have the ultimate state-of-the-art low maintenance capabilities and constructed with the best top-of-the-line materials available in order to withstand the limits that would be placed upon the system. For these reasons, a Savio sixteen inch Skimmerfilter was selected as the primary source of filtration and backed up by a secondary unit with a Savio Livingponds Waterfall Filter.
Savio patented water feature skimmers are the only units manufactured in the world with the ability to contain multiple key components located conveniently in one small localized area.
Large debris collection, ultraviolet sterilization, automatic water level control, biological filtration, small debris collection, pump chamber; automatic low water shut-off protection and back flow prevention valves can all be contained in one compact, easy to install unit. So, reaching the goal of installing an easily maintained and fully functional system had been answered by simply using a reliable and credible source with Savio Engineering. As well, we turned to Savio when we needed to effectively control the water level in this system by incorporating a Savio Mechanical Water Leveling unit.
To effectively achieve the goal of harmonic balance between the conflicting design elements of rustic beauty and formal elegance, the design concept was to bring the boulders right down into the formal pond area and give the illusion that the boulders had tumbled down the hillside and "broke" through the stone retaining wall that formed the rear edge of the pond.
This effectively introduced the natural element of the boulders into the formal area of the pond itself. To further continue this concept, several large boulders were placed inside the pond body, randomly scattered over the bottom giving the illusion that several large pieces or chunks had broken off or fallen into the water.
The forty foot long mountain stream meanders down the hillside over a five foot drop in elevation; twisting and tumbling its way through huge boulders and trees in a variety of widths from as little as three inches to as great as three feet.
The depth of the stream ranges from two inches to nearly ten inches and contains an assortment of fifteen or twenty waterfalls; one right after the other and culminating in a spectacular climax as it pours over a forty-two inch wide, eighteen inch drop into the pond below.
An additional goal our design team had to achieve was to overcome the traffic noise from a nearby main thoroughfare frequented by large trucks; without drowning out the normal conversation of visiting guests and residents. However; fine tuning the high, low and mid-range tones of a waterfall's melody was old school for our experienced team. A great selection of awesome rocks and boulders coupled with proper placement techniques and backed up by the ultimate in low maintenance Savio filtration systems, this water feature will be running crystal clear, pristine water for years.
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