Big Result in Big Ridge

Photos courtesy of Autumn Mist Aquatics

Nestled in the rolling foothills of Big Ridge, Tenn., just beyond the grasp of city life, sits a small, quiet lakefront neighborhood overflowing with southern hospitality. Carolyn Evans lives in a quaint retirement home complete with an empty swimming pool in her back yard.

Evans contacted Autumn Mist Aquatics, now owned by Matt Keown, an advanced-level certified water feature contractor from National Association of Pond Professionals and graduate of Savio Water Feature Institute. She asked if he could replace the pool with an attractive, low-maintenance water feature.

The water feature and landscaping project began in late August 2008 with Keown’s three-man crew removing the in-ground pool and using five dump-truck loads of dirt to fill the hole to a level 4-feet-deep. “The side where we did the water feature was almost totally inaccessible,” Keown said. In the landscaping phase, the team used a Bobcat to transport the large boulders needed to create the naturalistic waterfall setting.

The crew also battled Mother Nature’s moods almost daily as autumn settled in. “We dealt with an incredible amount of rain, translated mud,” Keown said. As winter approached, dropping temperatures added problems. “One day it was freezing,” he said. “The next day it would rain.”

Undeterred, the team created an attractive site featuring gravel beaches and quiet lagoons. The Savio-powered water feature circulates 11,280 gallons of water at a rate of nearly 18,000 gallons per hour through a 62-foot-long stream that twists and tumbles down the hillside with an elevational drop of more than 15 feet to the 790-square-foot pond.

The property includes an innovative deck system designed to hide the water feature components from view. In January 2009, Keown and his crew added the finishing touches of lights and landscape, moss-covered logs and more than 90 tons of lichen-covered Tennessee mountain stone boulders.

In a letter of appreciation to Keown and his team for the transformation, Evans wrote: “When people come and visit, they are truly amazed. They think they have gone into the mountains, because the pond and stream look so completely natural. What a great gateway for me to only have to walk out my back door to enjoy this setting, in addition to enjoying all of the views from within my house.”

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Big Result in Big Ridge

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