I couldn’t believe it. I was on the phone with The Pond Guy (a.k.a. Greg Wittstock) talking about a water feature build for the legendary Shaquille O’Neal. To make it even better, it would be built right next to his incredible creation that was featured on Treehouse Masters. This was going to be epic!
The excitement was twofold for me. Sure, this was a chance to be part of a famous water feature project, but the icing was to be able to immerse my son Tristan back in the trenches with the best pond builders on Earth. I deeply respect these men with whom I’ve had the privilege of traveling the globe. What an opportunity for an up-and-coming artist!
As a former Aquascape Artist Of The Year, we at Modern Design Aquascaping were thrilled to join our fellow past winners, with each of us bringing someone from our team along for the journey.
Our goal was to leave behind a little piece of the Smoky Mountains as our signature on Shaq’s new personal paradise. Before leaving on our journey to Georgia, we drove to the foothills of East Tennessee and acquired an amazing hollowed-out cedar log, the perfect “flower pot” to contain our plantings. We then went hiking to our “secret spot” in the woods and gathered some native mosses to use for detail work. The last thing we needed to throw in the truck was a bale of peat moss for our plants (as that is their soil of choice), and then we were ready to rock and roll!
We created some amazing edge detail on the side of the lower pond using some of our personal collection of Sarracenia (pitcher plants) in grand fashion. We had all the necessary ingredients to create a special spot, and the rest is history. It was a tough build, but so worth the work! If you would like to experience the job through our eyes, check out our YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/Mb7aeshX-HM.
