wishing for water

Remem­ber wish­ing wells? In the early 1970s, when I first started pay­ing close atten­tion to gar­dens, every few yards would have a wish­ing well as an accent of the land­scap­ing: Big lawns, lots of flow­ers, the wish­ing well, maybe even a lawn jockey. You don’t see wish­ing wells (or lawn jock­eys) around these parts very often anymore.

wishing-well

The other day I was up on the roof deck, enjoy­ing the breeze. Look­ing in a direc­tion I don’t usu­ally pay much atten­tion to, I noticed this fea­ture in the back yard of one of my neigh­bors. It’s a lit­tle hard to make out, so I’ve enhanced it a lit­tle. Hmmm. Looks like a wish­ing well, maybe 1970s vintage…

Jump ahead 30 years, to the more drought-conscious 21st cen­tury. Many Cal­i­for­ni­ans are reduc­ing or replac­ing their turf. One of the ways that’s used to give some focus or struc­ture to these de-lawned yards is to con­struct a dry stream bed.

(I thought it was inter­est­ing that both these yard accents are all about water. The wish­ing well cel­e­brates the stuff, almost as if it’s avail­able in a mag­i­cal, never-ending sup­ply. The stream bed is more of our time, and acknowl­edges that water is a resource that isn’t always plen­ti­ful and can’t be taken for granted.)

stream-with-duckies

Down the street, another of my neigh­bors has done their own take on a dry stream bed. It has lawn along some of its length, but suc­cu­lents and drought-tolerant plants the rest of the way. And in the mid­dle of the stream…seashells. And these lit­tle yel­low rub­ber duckies…

June 13 2009 | Categories: gardening • landscape design | Tags: • • • | 4 Comments »