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This was a 3 acre landscape design/build project site with several major problems. The large pond in the front was rapidly silting over and becoming overgrown with reeds and cattails. It was a corner property, exposed to heavy traffic on two of the cross roads. Portions of the landscape flooded from the stream that runs through it into the pond. All the previous landscaping was poorly done and inadequate to the proportions of the house. The image below shows the state of the pond, before, and after.

Cattails and reeds were taking over the silted pond.	Construction completed, Planting incomplete

Because several portions of this property are designated wetlands no landscape work, apart from the landscape design, could be done in those areas without first going through both the Army Corps of Engineers and the Department of Environment Control - The D.E.C

Finally, after submitting numerous drawings, specifications and fully documented plans to the D.E.C., and specifying how the landscape design we were submitting would contribute to the wetlands, we were able to commence rebuilding the landscape and reconstructing the wetlands.

The first part of the process in this landscape renovation was to dredge the pond. As it was, the pond was quite unhealthy, it lacked depth and was overgrown. It needed to be dredged, to deepen it and clear it of reeds.

The dredging hoe	The silted 'pond'

 

Once protective barriers were set up, dredging began.  We removed over 2,000 cubic yards of material, all of which we reused to create large berms to screen off the highly trafficked roads.

The platform to keep the hoe from sinking	Mud and silt stockpiled for later use as berms

Deepening the pond to a minimum of ten feet in some portions in itself creates a healthier environment, keeping the temperatures down and permitting specific flora and fauna to thrive, which in turn help create a balanced ecosystem.

This next image shows the pond once dredging was complete. Now it was necessary to insure it stayed healthy and did not continue to silt over and that brings us to the next phase of this landscape design/build project.

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Fountains