Houston Outdoor Water Features

What are outdoor water features?
Water features are decorative landscape features that use water as their main element. . The use of water to decorate landscapes goes back thousands of years in Western, Middle Eastern, and Eastern Society. Water is a universal symbol of spirit and life, and as such connotes tranquility and peace to the deepest level of the unconscious mind.

What are some of outdoor water features used today?
Just a few include reflecting ponds, waterfalls, custom fountains, and natural ponds. They are most commonly built as the center pieces of gardens. Here, they ground the essence of water as a symbol as something that is also vital to sustaining the very life of vegetation.

There are exceptions to this, however. You may, for example, have a contemporary home that is surrounded by a landscape with very little greenery. The Mentalist nature of such a yard would require us to use outdoor water features to create a sense of fluid linkage between lines, angles, and radii that punctuate the landscape.

Custom fountains play a very important role in contemporary landscaping because they are often used to replace tall-growth vegetation as a means toward achieving vertical impact. They can also be built into very unique places, such as beds of gravel, Zen-like gardens, or even the middle of a patio.

Can’t I just buy a fountain and install it myself?
Creating order, system, and spectacle all in a singular focal point, however, is not something easy for the do-it-yourselfer or the amateur garden services company to do. Forget about buying pre-fabricated wall fountains or fountain basins from cutesy little garden depots on the side of the road. These elements will not compliment a truly professional landscaping master plan, nor will they work with the specifics of your home architecture when you drag them home and attempt to make them work with their new environment.

Design expertise and professional masonry are what you need to achieve the outcome you truly seek in an outdoor water feature.

Why should I consider spending money on custom outdoor water features?
You should consider the money you spend on any professionally developed water element as an upgrade of your yard that will add curb appeal to your home and property. As we already mentioned, water’s universality as a symbol guarantees its popularity to the viewer, provided it is properly design and constructed.

Are lighting and outdoor water features compatible?
They are not only compatible, but highly recommended as partner elements. Many different types of lights can be installed in and around water elements. The most effective lights are those that go underwater and illuminate the surface from within. This adds the equivalent of a fourth dimension to the vertical element of a fountain or waterfall, and it creates the illusion of greater depth in ponds and pools.

Exterior Wall Fountains in your Landscape

Within the landscaping vernacular, exterior wall fountains belong to the category called custom hardscapes. They are the non-plant structures and materials of your landscape design. This category, whether custom or not, include landscaping elements such as decks, patios and courtyards, garden arbors and arches, pathways, gates and fences.

Exterior wall fountains make stylish additions to your landscape. The clients of Exterior Worlds have found that they add auditory pleasure and visual charm as they direct the admiring eye across the outdoor design. In addition, they are extremely versatile, taking center stage as a large water fountain that covers an entire wall or fitting snugly into the odd corner.

If your plantings were chosen for their ability to attract wildlife, as with a butterfly garden design, you will find that fountains of all designs and sizes are excellent choices to make. Wall fountains naturally pair up with outdoor structures such as brick garden walls, whose rectangular surface seems to invite the gracefulness of water. Another excellent location for a wall fountain is a retaining garden wall—the moving water turns the retaining wall’s stolid and functional nature into an element of beauty. In fact, exterior wall fountains fit into any garden theme, from traditional to modern, from stone landscaping to shade garden design.

Exterior Worlds recommends that you consider a custom fountain. Our custom-built water fountains address any design problems upfront, such as the problem found in pre-fabricated fountains when water bounces out of the fountain. This over-spray leads to subsequent problems, such as discoloration of the surrounding material due to Houston’s hard water and the area near the fountain becoming slippery and moldy.

You can find exterior wall fountains in a variety of materials, including stone, slate, cast concrete and metals, such as copper and steel. We highly suggest that, in addition to its visual quality and attraction, durability be an important characteristic you look for since you want your fountain to withstand the constant contact with water and Houston’s various—and notorious—weather conditions.

You will also want to include the fountain in your overall residential landscape lighting plan in order to maximize your overall pleasure in it. As your lighting design experts, Exterior Worlds will help you imagine the wall fountain in daylight and nighttime conditions. We will use lighting techniques that make it a nighttime highlight or a subtle accent, depending on what you want to achieve.

From a design viewpoint, wall fountains are adaptable and flexible resources, a quality that has to do with their varying sizes. At one end of the spectrum, you could install a freestanding wall, complete with fountain, within the spare lines of a contemporary backyard design. Or if you have a wall niche in a small side garden, one can fit perfectly there. In the same manner, a wall fountain at your front entrance establishes a welcoming ambiance. Your imagination and good taste should be your guide you as you contemplate installing a water fountain. It will provide you with years of pleasure and peace—which is a fine investment for your property and for you!

Outdoor Water Features

At Exterior Worlds, we pour all our years of experience, skill and passion into each landscape design, especially outdoor water features. Their forms and uses are many, like water itself. Here are a few examples of ones we’ve designed and installed:

• Custom fountain designs. Custom fountains are dynamic and functional outdoor water features, especially when made using highly personalized and luxurious signature designs. By providing sound and movement, these works of art extend the pleasure of your landscape design by engaging the senses.
• Garden wall fountains. With a touch of elegance, wall fountains enhance your garden by turning it into a delightful and tranquil space. If you have a theme garden, such as a Tuscan garden or modern courtyard design, they can expand that idea.
• Disappearing water fountains. The disappearing water fountain is characterized by the absence of a basin. The water seems to dissolve into the ground, when in reality it goes into a camouflaged pit and then re-circulates. This unique landscape element is a favorite of secluded areas, such as a yoga retreat or reading area.
• Reflecting pools. Reflecting pools, known for their tranquil surfaces, are most often located near taller edifices to serve as a mirror and magnifier. Through the use organic and non-organic components, they link elements together in a mesmerizing focal point.

• Koi ponds. Eye-catching, ornamental, enchanting—these are just a few of the adjectives used to describe koi ponds. Even while providing a home for its fish, these ponds give you tremendous variability, design-wise. For example, naturalistic ponds recall the wilderness. If constructed in a rectangle or circle, they contrast with amorphous shapes found elsewhere. They are as adaptable as nature itself.
• Garden waterfall designs. Using elements found in nature, such as rocks, streams, boulders and elevation, waterfall designs recreate one of the natural world’s more memorable features. Even though they are relatively expensive to install, homeowners love waterfalls for their dramatic and impressive appeal.
• Custom swimming pools. Using both new and classic concepts, a custom pool is one of the key elements in your master landscaping plan. Your relatively large financial outlay is repaid with a high level of functionality and aesthetic appeal as it works perfectly with your lifestyle, extant architecture and topography.

In considering any outdoor water feature within your landscape design, we are very cognizant of how your chosen water element blends with other elements on your property, specifically the architectural style of your home. We work for seamless integration because we want the beauty to shine through—with no jarring distractions. Our planning and designing are further defined by sophisticated style and sumptuous materials. This singular style works whether our clients’ preferences are for the simple or grand scale.

In the end, luxury in your Houston landscape design is communicated in many ways. The sense of luxury is conveyed with hardscapes, softscapes, material choices and attention to detail. Over the years, we have come to believe that an outdoor water feature is one of the most impressive landscaping elements. Water is magic. It soothes, energizes, delights. It can be playful or peaceful, inspired or inspiring. So, go ahead—indulge your aesthetic sense with the art of water.

Contemporary Garden Fountains

What is a contemporary garden fountain?
By definition, it is a custom water feature characterized by stark geometry, superior construction materials, and mechanical sophistication. They operate on remote, silent pumps that circulate water silently so that all you hear is the water itself.

Contemporary water fountains are highly customized to fit the unique parameters of an individual residence. Designs are based on linear forms and radial arcs. Decorative flair is deliberately minimized out of an eclectic passion for the abstract.

Does the presence of a contemporary garden fountain add any curb appeal to my landscape?
Yes. If you have a fountain like this build in the front of your yard, it will draw the viewer’s gaze directly in line with your front door. If you add a fountain to a backyard landscape, it will suggest a sense of outdoor living to prospective buyers.

What functional contributions can a contemporary garden fountain do for my yard?
One thing it will definitely do for you is drown out the sounds of the city with the peaceful sounds of running water. Contemporary landscape design is all about Mentalism. Adding an island of tranquility to the challenging geometry of the landscape is an excellent way to balance sense and sensibility throughout your yard.

A contemporary garden fountain is often built as the centerpiece in a courtyard garden of some sort. When lit with underwater lights, it can illuminate the immediate seating area around the fountain and serve as a focal point for conversation.

What aesthetic contribution does a contemporary garden fountain make to the landscape?
For one thing, it adds a very unique and dynamic form of vertical impact to a contemporary garden. Water suggests the essence of life but is non-organic in its own right. Its lack of form is ideal for a landscape shaped by abstract conceptual that challenge the comfort zone of the five senses. However, since water is the foundation of life itself it paradoxically works to soften a contemporary landscape just enough to make it appealing.

What materials are used to construct contemporary garden fountains?
Any material that catches the eye and provides a stable structure will work, really. Cut, finished stone is a favorite among many contemporary Houston homeowners. Resin and fiberglass also make excellent building materials for smaller fountains used to decorate small courtyard gardens or private patio gardens. This is done to emulate stone or concrete in an environment that cannot support a great deal of weight.

Another very popular construction method is to blend either copper or steel with some kind of stone. The combinations of texture and color that result from such blends are nearly infinite.

How large are these fountains?
They can range in size from very small, simple structures surrounding by a few stepping stones and boxwoods to sizes large enough for children to play in. Contemporary design is one of our favorite styles of landscaping, period; because it is so subjective by nature that customization is never a problem.

Whatever you want your fountain to look like, we can build it to order, and we can make it work with your landscape master plan either as the central hub of attraction and outdoor living, or as a supportive, minor element in a more complex and grand design.

Landscaping Ponds

Where should I have my pond built?
A landscaping pond should be built in full sunlight so that aquatic plants will get enough light to flower. It is also best to have it built in an area of the yard that, from any vantage point, appears equidistant from major points of interest. By this we mean that if you are standing in the doorway of your summer kitchen located at the back of the yard looking at your landscaping pond located more toward the center of the yard, that your pond will appear proportionally related to nearby gardens, trees, fountains, your swimming pool, and your home in the far background of the scene.

What you do NOT want is a pond that appears to be crowded up against another landscape element or outdoor building. If a pond is part of a larger garden design, then an exception to this rule applies, but you will need a professional landscape designer to develop it in order to make it work with the surrounding landscape.

Does the shape and design of the pond matter?
Yes. A landscaping pond is part of a master landscape plan that is based on several things. The most important factor in the creation of this plan is the style of your home architecture. Since the intent of professional landscape design (not to be confused with rudimentary basic lawn services) is to create an outdoor living space equivalent in the quality of life to the interior comforts of a home, there must be a sense of reflection and congruence between the two realms these two realms blend into a singular expression of personal lifestyle.

You should therefore be aware that a pond can be a beautiful addition to your landscape regardless of the size of your home and your property. However, the size and shape of that pond will need to be designed proportionally as one of many elements in order to create the feeling of harmony and freedom you seek in Houston outdoor living.

Should I have lighting installed in my landscaping pond?
Yes. Without lighting, your pond can only be enjoyed during the daytime. Special lighting fixtures will transform it from a dull shadow on the nighttime Houston landscape into a magical realm of color and dancing shadow. Both general lighting for visibility and special effects lighting are now possible with underwater, low-voltage LED lights that are very cheap to operate and safe to use in submerged locations. They will not harm fish or aquatic plants and pose no threat to humans and pets when installed correctly by a licensed professional.

If you plan to stock your pond with fish, the most important kind of plant to install is oxygenator plants. You must be cautious not to install any plants that are toxic to fish. The list is too long to enumerate here, but just a few of these include amaryllis, bottlebrush, boxwood, caladium, dapne, hydrangea, and bird of paradise. If you have any questions about what should or should not be planted in your landscaping pond, it is best to confer with your landscape designer and let him or her recommend aquatic species with aesthetic value that will also be good for your fish.

What species of fish can I have in my pond?
That depends on the size and depth of your landscaping pond. Koi are a favorite fish, but they may not do well in just any type of pond. You may need a more formal koi pond like we often build in order to give them an appropriate environment. Goldfish and other species of carp will live in almost any type of water. If your property is big enough for a large landscaping pond of significant depth, you can even have it stocked with sun perch, catfish, or bass.

Contemporary Koi Ponds

Contemporary koi ponds are deliberately manmade forms that follow established rules of geometric order. The landscape does not so much determine what size or shape the koi pond takes, but rather the architecture of the home and to a certain extent surrounding hardscape elements. Contemporary koi ponds have been built throughout River Oaks, Rice Village, Memorial, and Hedwig Village near homes that feature all sorts of architectural themes, but have one thing in common.

The traditional koi pond is built in a more freeform style that mimics natural ponds and lakes. Typically these ponds are built near trees or gardens to create a park like or even wilderness theme within the landscape design. It is not so with contemporary koi ponds. As with all contemporary styles, organic presence is minimized and abstract conceptualization is elevated through the forms of geometry. Rectangles, squares, triangles, and radiuses (semicircles or half circles) are the preferred shapes that landscape architects tend to work with.

The minimal organic presence does not mean that the contemporary koi pond lacks all feeling of life. Quite the opposite is true. Life is simply more subdued within the form. Vegetation being minimized, it is the water that creates the dimension and the sense of life. The combination of the hard absolutes of straight lines and angles and the soft fluidity of clear essence adds a calming aesthetic to the abstract element of mind. Instead of trees and shrubs lining its banks, you see ornamental copings made from high grade materials. Instead of colorful flowers hanging into the water, you see colorful fish rising up to the surface. The fish bring movement to the pond, and sometimes gifts of attention. Koi have been known to let people feed them by hand.

Contemporary koi ponds are sometimes built like swimming pools as separate elements in the landscape design. When we build them in this fashion, we normally place them along a trail or walkway that guests will stroll down and pause for a moment to look at the forms and the water and the fish. At other locations we may build a pond as part of a modern garden. A rectangular or square design works best in this environment with a radius arc that moves the water and the fish partly into the perimeter of the garden. This works exceptionally well in modern tropical garden design, where the minimalist planting of vegetation is offset first by the use of exotic plants, and second by the introduction of geometric abstracts into hardscape design and semi-organic space.

Other clients of Exterior Worlds simply love water and fish so much that they want their contemporary koi pond to be the center of attention and activity. For these clients, we can design the pool as a quadrilateral element with a radius arc on one side. This will in turn allow us to wrap a custom patio or high-grade wooden deck around its perimeter, softening the contemporary design just enough to make it comfortable and peaceful to sit by. A waterfall can be added at the opposite end to enhance the calming effect that water has on the mind, and lighting can be placed under the waterfall to convey a sense of living presence and vitality in what originally began as a simple, and rather sterile, geometric form.

Waterfall Landscape Design

Waterfall landscape design is something of a cornerstone in pond and natural swimming pool construction. Perhaps nothing else makes a pond look more natural than a waterfall. We use all natural materials such as boulders and limestone to create the appearance of miniature cliffs. We lay all of these stones by hand, making sure to position them in patterns that emulate rock formations in the wild. By concealing silent pumps just the rear of these formations, we can recreate the scene of a mountain stream pouring over the edge of a mountain into still below.

People typically hire us to build them a swimming pool that is more than a pool to simply swim in. It is a gathering place and an architectural feature as well. Because the swimming pool works on many levels to establish the landscape as a realm of outdoor luxury living, it is not uncommon to build pools with special features such as spas, water jets, and a waterfall.

In one sense, a Japanese garden is a waterfall landscape design in its own right. Originating East as a carefully manicured environment dedicated to sacred space and meditation, the Japanese form has become popular in the West as a water feature and personal locale of seclusion. Not every client of Exterior Worlds wants a Japanese garden for the same spiritual reasons as its historical progenitors, but all who invest in this form note that it brings a remarkably calming effect to their minds and ultimately becomes something of a retreat that is intimately personal and reflective of to their particular way of life.

Some koi ponds are very contemporary in design, looking almost like shallow swimming pools in modern landscapes fill with abstract forms and contemporary architecture. Others, however, are intended to more closely resemble ponds in nature, and for all intents and purposes fall into the category of pond landscape design.

One of the things that waterfall landscape design can add to a contemporary style koi pond is a touch of nature that brings a sense of organic fluidity to the scene without departing significantly from the Mentalism that is the essence of contemporary landscape design.

Custom fountains can be built to look like actual waterfalls, or they can have waterfalls flowing into them. Either form is preferable to the stereotypical three-tiered fountain that has become far too commonplace and generic in the world of fountain décor. Our fountains are designed to convey a type of awareness, a certain feeling of calm tranquility that is uniquely personal to the owner. Unless specifically instructed otherwise by our clients, we tend to replace the three-tiered fountains we encounter with something more personal and aesthetically linked to natural realm.

Lagoon Pools & Design

Oftentimes, we end up wanting to make everything on the landscape look as much a part of Nature as can as we can. This can be challenging when we built certain structures such as swimming pools, which are by nature very human and artificial environments. However, while we may not be able to alter the basic purpose of a thing, we can change the way it comes across by altering its proportions and appearance. This being considered, lagoon pool designs are some of the most powerful examples of how something inherently manmade in origin can be sculpted to blend with the topography and structures of the earth itself.

From a design-build perspective, lagoon pools are not built any differently than standard and luxury pools. What makes them different is their deliberate departure from the strict linearity that defines most other pool styles. With these other designs, water is strictly contained in a rectangular space or adjacent series of rectangles and squares. The opposite is true for lagoon pools.

This is done to imitate Nature’s apparent boredom with straight lines. Think about it for a moment. Everything you see in nature either goes in a curve or breaks a straight line soon enough with a jagged edge or angular departure from linearity. We want to imitate this progression in lagoon pool design—using free flowing energy to follow a progression that will end up looking like something we would suddenly stumble on in some remote island paradise.

Curved lines and rough edges are the key to making this work. We want our lagoon pool design to flow across the ground like water coming into an inlet from the sea. This means we have to forget about this whole mathematical concept of a radius. Radii are used in other constructions to establish symmetry and clear boundaries. We don’t want any boundaries here, but something instead that speaks of freedom, destination, and a sense of rest after a long and harrowing journey.

Most lagoon pool designs have a tropical look to them due to the strong connection between lagoons and islands in the South Pacific. There is a derivative form, however, based upon bodies of water in Central Texas. We call this our Hill Country theme and has been developed especially for Houstonians whose jobs are in Houston but whose hearts are in Austin. For such individuals, we landscape their property with a Hill Country ranch theme, and we shape the pool to look like the ponds and tanks you would find in the open spaces of rolling Texas hills.