An Oasis Renewed

An Oasis

Renewed

Saving a cherished space

By C l au di a Wat s on

P ho togr a Phs By l au r a ginger iC h

Only a few steps f rom the street, you’ll hear the soothing sound of water cascading into a burbling stream. It’s a hidden water fall car ved f rom a niche in the land ’s nat ural slope and ar tf ully built of stacked stone, ancient r iver rock and boulders. Mosses mingle among fer ns, while daint y t uf ts of violets peek out f rom rock s, eager for sunlight. Birds and the occasional dragonfly linger in this Zen-like oasis.

At the stream’s edge is a r ugged piece of Tennessee slate eng raved with the words Anniversar y Pond 2002, mark ing the sig nificance of the water garden. Built by Tom and Pamela Cochran of Pinehurst not long af ter settling here af ter Tom’s retirement, the garden celebrates their 25th wedding anniversar y.

“It wa s a g if t we gave to e ach ot her,” says Pa mela, not ing t hat wh i le t hey had l it t le interest in t r avel, t hey adore d t heir new home. “I’ve a lways enjoye d l isten ing to t he water, a nd t h is is my haven a nd ma kes our t ime on t he back p orch sp e cia l. It’s a plac e to w ind dow n a nd me d it ate.”

W hen the Cochrans built the water garden, its center piece was a koi pond. T hey enjoyed the br ightly- colored fish for years, but af ter problems with the pond and not finding someone to maintain it they par ted ways with the koi.

Tom says they considered tak ing the entire water feat ure out at one point, but quick ly ni xed the thought. “Pamela absolutely loves the sound of the water, so we decided to find a way to keep it.”

A landscape contractor thought the water garden was splendidly built. “He told us, ‘If maintenance is the problem, then remove the pond and keep what you like — the sound of the water fall and the stream,’” recalls Tom. “Until then, we thought we had only t wo options: Either keep the stone walls and landscaping around them or rebuild the area, but without a pond.”

T hey hoped they could craf t a solution — and at a reasonable cost. “If the pr ice was r ight, then we were all in,” Tom says.

A f r iend passed along the name of their law n maintenance contractor. T he Cochrans called and were astonished when he showed up t wo hours later. T hat contractor, Bar r y Har tney of Zen Ponds and Gardens, became “ver y involved in the project f rom the moment he stepped into the garden.”

“I of fered to do pond maintenance for them, but they really wanted to be done with the pond. T hey were consider ing removing the water fall and stream, too. I was st unned,” Har tney says. “T his water garden looked like it had been there forever, and it’s the t ype of work rarely seen.”

Har tney, who has ow ned his landscaping business for nearly

25 years, sensed that the water garden was ver y personal to the Cochrans. “It was their oasis, and they der ived g reat pleasure f rom it. I wanted to help them find a way to keep the best par t of it,” he says. So he dug a little deeper.

The Cochran’s pond problem stemmed from stormwater runof f. They don’t have gutters and downspouts, and stormwater rushed of f their porch, washing mulch, soil and leaves into the pond. During heav y storms, which have become more frequent, the pond flooded, overflowed and washed out the area below it. The standing water was also a breeding ground for mosquitoes. In addition, the landscaped area behind their porch, eroded by stormwater, couldn’t support vegetation.

A f ter a thorough review, Har tney recommended moving the stor mwater r unof f to an on-site rain capt ure area, where it would percolate into the soil, feeding nearby plant life.

“I’m practical and like to work with nat ure, not against it,” says Har tney, who is a g raduate of the Abraham Baldwin Ag r icult ural College School in Tif ton, Georg ia. “W hatever the problem is, I look for the nat ural solution that will hold up over time.”

Har tney’s solution was a rain garden. T hat, combined w ith the addition of a dr y stream bed and some good old drainage work, would do the job, and at a pr ice that worked. T he Cochrans’ oasis would be renewed.

Work began by caref ully remov ing a por tion of the existing koi pond ’s 4 -foot-high stone wa ll and set ting its r iver rock s and boulders aside. “T hat was tr ick y,” says Har tney. “Par t of the stone wa ll held up the hillside, and we didn’t want to damage the integ r it y or beaut y of the wa ll.”

T he rock- and dir t-moving ef for t took place without the benefit of machiner y that could cause packed soil, erosion and other damage, especially in a tight or landscaped area.

“I rarely use machiner y,” says Har tney. “W hen we work around existing st uf f, we want the honest feel of a shovel and pick a x.”

To keep the existing water fall and stream meant other modifications. In the old system, the water fall recirculated water f rom the deep koi pond, which required biofilters for healthy fish. W hen Har tney removed the pond, out came the maintenance headache — its old liner, pump, biofilters and sk immer system. T hen, he excavated deeply to install the reser voir for the new, low-maintenance, pondless pump system that keeps the water recirculating to the water fall.

“A large in-g round reser voir pumps water up to the water fa lls, and then it flows back dow n to the stream and into the reser voir,” he explains.

A side f rom keeping the aesthetics of the water fall and stream intact, he also needed to direct and capt ure r unof f f rom the porch area overlook ing the water garden.

“T hat area under the roof ’s dr ip line was pounded with rain and nearly bald f rom f requent washouts,” says Har tney. “It was impor tant to sof ten that impact, so we put dow n weed bar r ier cloth and used rock s instead of mulch to cover it. T hen we nat uralized the area to blend it into the proper t y.”

T he Cochrans selected several shade-loving and decorative dwar f camellia sasanqua ‘Shishigashira’ that of fer a prof usion of rosy-pink blooms in the spr ing and fall. A glossy-leaf paper plant ( fatsia japonica) anchors a cor ner, away f rom the midday sun.

W hen it rains, the stream may fill and over flow, but it’s no longer an issue. A dr y stream bed, which ser ves as a shallow retention basin, is sited at the end of the stream. T he basin is lined with weed bar r ier cloth and filled with r iver rock s and cobblestones. T his porous area allows stor mwater to filter through quick ly, where it is absorbed into the soil and is a nutr ient source for the plants.

A young Japanese laceleaf maple (Acer palmatum var. dissectum) secures the sunny, raised bank, where rainwater can ir r igate but not sat urate its root area. English yews (Taxus baccata ‘Repandens’) spread undulating branches as g roundcover, and several air y, pink muhly g rasses (Muhlenberg ia) provide an eye-popping ef fect.

If the basin fills dur ing a heav y rain event, a concealed outflow device channels the water into the proper t y’s drainage system, where it infiltrates the g round. “In the heaviest of recent tropical stor ms, we’ve seen the water dissipate within a couple of hours versus sitting here for days,” says Tom. “We enjoy our porch view of the garden now — in the sunshine and dur ing the rain.”

T he revived oasis provides a r ich habitat for insects, birds, reptiles and mammals who find shelter, food, and water while veiled by the shady treetops. Nestlings t witter for attention. Yellow swallow tails dr if t on a light breeze, and a star tled f rog spontaneously leaps f rom a rock seek ing the safet y of the stream. Nearby, the luscious lime-g reen hue of emerg ing fer n f ronds enlivens a small but unique garden that draws attention.

“T hat’s the Fr iend ’s Fer n Garden,” says Pamela, pointing to the garden composed of assor ted young fer ns. Holly fer ns (Cyr tomium falcatum) blend with the bronzy fiddleheads of native and colonyfor ming Netted Chain fer ns (Woodwardia areolata) and Aut umn fer ns (Dr yopteris er ythrosora). A ll happily coexist under the protective shade of live oak s (Quercus virg iniana), one of the most valuable trees to wildlife.

“Fr iends br ing me fer ns f rom all over,” she says. “A nd the rock s that sur round the fer n garden and other areas are the ones that Bar r y removed f rom the old koi pond. I didn’t want to lose any of them.”

Har t ney broug ht in most of t he e ar t hen-tone d b ou lders of ma ny shap es a nd si zes, ar t f u l ly work ing t hem into t he la ndsc ap e surround ing t he st re a m. “He wa s met ic u lous,” Pa mela says. “He ha s a cre at ive eye.”

Some of the rock s, such as the A nniversar y Rock, which they put in a safe place dur ing the project, hold special meanings to the Cochrans. Others include the Sitting Rock (named for obvious reasons) and the Bread Rock, which resembles a loaf of Vienna bread with its rounded and tapered edges. It for merly stood on its end in the pond, a focal point for Pamela’s daily mindf ulness meditation.

Har tney waited until the end of the project to place the final rock. Caref ully searching the garden, his eyes fell upon the spot. He k nelt on the dr y stream bed and t ucked the A nniversar y Rock into place along the edge of a flat boulder. Its contours were a per fect mate with those of the boulder, mak ing its placement a touching tr ibute on the Cochran’s 43rd anniversar y.

Renewed, their oasis is a mar r iage of rock and water — a sustainable and serene combination. PS

Cl au di a Wat son is a fre qu ent contr ib ut or t o PineSt r aw an d T he Pi lot . If th ere’s a gard en th at y ou’ d lik e h er t o v isit , pl e a se cont a ct cwat son87@ n c.r r.com.