ward County was spared serious home damage from the hurricanes, our landscape suffered severely.
       But not to despair; every misfortune offers a new opportunity! Why not try the hottest trend in landscaping; a picturesque water garden with a babbling stream, cascading waterfalls, colorful fish and beautiful aquatic plants. Water is the magic element that controls our lives even before we breathe air into our lungs. We live surrounded by water, and without it we cannot eat, drink or survive.
       Yet water has always been more than just an essential commodity. Its great mystical and religious significance spans centuries and cultures. In ancient Egypt, as early as 1225 B.C., Rameses III cultivated water lily ponds. It is known that the Incas of Peru, around 2500 B.C., created intricate water cooling pools and basins.
       It was the Chinese, and later the Japanese, who perfected the water garden as imitation of the natural landscape. They looked to their gardens as a symbol of perfection and tranquility representing the elements of heaven and earth, and established the pattern for the essential oriental garden complete with island, lake and bridges. And during the Renaissance, formal water gardens flourished as never before, especially in Italy where sculptured fountains became a fine art form, climaxing several centuries later with Bernini’s fabulous Baroque fountains.
       No landscape design element brings greater interest and sustained pleasure to a garden scene than a well-integrated water feature, whether still or moving. A waterfall consistently supplies us with welcome and soothing effects of sight, sound and even touch. On the other hand, a body of still water, whether as natural as a pond or as artificially created as a birdbath, contributes placid simplicity into a landscape viewing point.