Decentralized Water Retention Landscapes:

Water is life! Without it, everything we know and love in the garden would cease. With it, our gardens thrive with abundant growth, beauty, and diversity of life forms.

All of our design decisions morph and pivot around the sectors of the garden that are suited for water retention features.

Ponds, springs, rain gardens, beaver dam analogues, one rock dams, seasonal or perennial streams - there are many water features that we can develop in the landscape that allow us to honor, respect, and integrate the precious gift that the rains provide.

Front yard raingarden nestled behind a small retaining wall

Front yard raingarden integrates a gutter downspout with a filter, retaining roof runoff for the benefit of the garden.

Seasonal creek erosion protection with integrated “beaver dam analogue” to manage water velocity and facilitate water retention.

Ponds:

Ponds can take many forms, from small backyard fountain features to large scale agricultural and environmental installations. No matter the scale, ponds can be integrated within landscapes (if they have an appropriate landform) to retain (and strategically release) water in the landscape.

In the urban environment, we can create ponds and waterfalls lined with a thick rubber pond liner for a perennial water feature that creates habitat benefits for the full spectrum of life and provides a unique, natural oasis. We can integrate roof runoff, water tank overflow, or stream flow into these ponds, and engineer them to overflow into successive ponds, raingardens, to sheet flow across a wet meadow, or back into a stream.

Earth Ecology founder Nick Lake taking a dip in a recently completed backyard pond.

The pond receives overflow from rain tanks which capture roof rainwater. It then overflows into a raingarden, which then overflows into a flow well, passively hydrating a weeping willow.

Our creative waterfall features filter water, and provide peaceful “creekside” sounds.

In larger landscapes with appropriate landform, soil/clay composition, geologic conditions, and inspired vision, we can design and create large scale water retention earthworks for managed water flow, and in the right conditions, perennial water bodies. These can be designed in various ways to benefit wildlife habitat, rehydrate aquifers, bolster water security, irrigate crops, and provide immense beauty, recreation, and a legacy of responsible watershed stewardship. Founder and Manager Nick Lake has studied with Zach Weiss of Elemental Ecosystems and Water Stories.