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Letter's of Reference
| February 17, 2005
Dear Dan,
Tom and I would like to express our gratitude to you and your crew for creating our wonderful water garden. Please consider this a letter of reference to be shared with potential clients.
When we chose the shore of Deer Lake as the location for our new home several years ago we knew our lot would be challenging because it is all hill. The lakeshore half of the lot was easy. Leave it alone. Nature did a beautiful job there and that was the smartest thing to do. The roadside half, behind the house was pretty much destroyed by construction. Unavoidable as it was, we still felt bad about it. Fortunately we were able to save the clump oak and the birch tree, along with some of the border trees. We were faced with the immediate problem of preventing erosion. Following was a series of fix-it solutions by two different companies and ourselves. The first company sculpted the hillside, creating two small bumps to slow the water. The next installed sod. It had to be watered, mowed and chemically de-weeded. Since I refused to fertilize or introduce lawn chemicals so close to our beautiful lake (chemical runoff ruins lakes) the weeds soon overtook the hillside. Next we tried wildflowers. (Too shady). We tried letting it go back to nature, but the damage to the soil composition prevented natural seeding of all but dandelions. Planting hay (we got a mixture from the feed mill) helped, but constant mowing was the best way to control the dandelions.
We planted a hedge to hide the mess, and a small rock garden to add color to the mess, but no matter how you looked at it, it was still a mess. Until June of 2004 we were mowing the mess weekly to reduce its visibility behind the hedge. Mowing was very dangerous and very difficult due to the steepness of the grade. The mess was the first thing visitors to our home would see. But not anymore!
In February of 2004 I was glancing through the community education brochure from Itasca Community College and saw the description of your seminar. The idea of a water garden took hold. We never guessed how it would evolve into so much more. We never guessed that the “mess” could be transformed into our own little wonderland where we could retreat virtually any time of the day, because there is not any time of day or night that our water garden does not offer something unique to us. The wildlife has been amazing. We don’t know why the critters like the pond better than the lake. We’ve never seen a frog on the lakeshore, but our pond and stream are full of them. Grouse, deer, ducks, squirrels, rabbits, birds, raccoons, all have visited our pond.
I must tell you how much we appreciated the timely fashion in which you completed our pond and rock work. To prospective clients, you should know that Dan and crew were in our yard and working prior to 8am every day and they worked until 5 or 7pm each day until the project was finished. They took the weekend off which gave us time to come up with more projects for them. They accepted our additions with good humor. I worked side by side with them, and Dan constantly shared with me his wealth of knowledge about natural plantings, or how to make plantings that look like nature put them there. The mossy rocks and logs are a great touch. Our 10x15’ pond is fed by a 30” stream which has a waterfall, a beaver dam, an island, a bridge and underwater lights for night viewing. A cobblestone path leads viewers across the bridge. The water stayed crystal clear all summer, and is still clear this winter. The rock terracing is very natural appearing and the ferns, blueberries and wild strawberries grew well throughout last summer. I would expect that with our good snow cover they have wintered well. Dan’s crew shut the circulating pump down for us last fall and we have contracted with them to get things going this spring. This is something we could do ourselves, but they can do it better. We have really enjoyed our water garden and the surrounding plantings. It’s one of the best things we’ve ever done for ourselves. We thank WoodSpirit Gardens for taking us beyond our vision.
Sincerely.
Tom and Ann Jackson |
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