For most people, a water feature such as a pond, reflecting pool or fountain, is somewhat of a garden folly. But for John Artarian, it’s serious business.
“It’s a little bit of everything and a lot of everything all at once and it has to be done perfectly because water is relentless and will find all of your faults for you,” Artarian says, echoing a lament familiar to every homeowner. The margin for error is greater when trying to make water—a free form substance—adapt to an artistic standpoint.
“We can make it perfect or we can just get them through the season, or we can make it stable where they can have some goldfish and aquatic plants and a nice pond in the backyard,” he says. “It really depends on the condition of the property and what the client really wants to see.”
It’s why he works closely with clients to understand their visions, counsels them on when something is not going to work—and gives them options to splash around.
Life in Liquid
The long-time owner of Aquatic Habitats in Westhampton is a fixer of all things water related in landscapes, specializing in creating, designing and restoring water features. It’s a specialty that requires knowledge of not only landscape design, but also plumbing and filtration, construction, botany, water management and ecosystems.
And fish. Specifically, koi, a popular ornamental fish that pond people like to feed and breed. The colorful carp, Artarian says, require an additional level of expertise because of their particular habits such as burrowing to spawn (they can lay thousands of eggs), which causes water turbidity, and their prolific propensity to poop—up to one-third of their body weight in a single day.
“People tend to feed them a lot, so they eat and expel even more excrement,” he says. “They are beautiful, but they are a lot of maintenance and there are a lot of challenges.”
Still, they are popular with homeowners and hobbyists who want a safe environment for them, so Artarian has become an expert in creating ponds with the proper filtration, oxygenation and flora for the carp, which can live to be more than a century old.
Wading In
Born in Brooklyn, where his dad owned a flower shop, but a near-lifelong resident of Suffolk County, Artarian briefly considered a career as a police officer before realizing the uniformed officer lifestyle wasn’t for him. He has always worked in and enjoyed construction, so it seemed more natural to team up with a buddy in his waterscape business, where he became a manager. Several years in, Artarian branched out and opened his own company in western Suffolk and Nassau counties. When his friend decided to sell his business, Artarian purchased it and put his own stamp on it. This is his 21st year as proprietor and in that time, he’s become a jack of all trades.
For a project on Squabble Lane in Southampton, Artarian was charged with renovating a 40-year-old two-acre man-made lake with a deteriorating liner and some 100 koi in residence.
“The water was getting dangerously low for the koi to be able to get through the winter,” Artarian explains.
The fish were safely removed and housed in eight swimming pools during the 12-week restoration, which involved draining the pond, removing and remediating 40 years of muck, reshaping it and installing a long-lasting, geosynthetic clay liner, often cited as the gold standard for non-invasive hydraulic barriers.
Artarian used clean sand as a substrate so the new aquatic plants had a surface to root in, and they restocked the pond with the fish and beneficial plants. The ornamental gazebo was restored and a fountain was activated to give drama to the large water surface. The project was both ornamental and environmental, providing a sustainable habitat for the fish.
It’s a little bit of everything and a lot of everything all at once and it has to be done perfectly because water is relentless and will find all of your faults for you.
Pond Life
On Sebonac Road, Artarian found a project that tapped into not only his expertise but his passion.
“I love doing large-scale native wetlands and seeing them grow over the years,” he says.
This passion project involved restoring a half-century-old pond on a 35-acre estate that was suffering under the weight of its own congested ecosystem. Without proper aeration and water movement, the oxygen exchange that is vital to plant life was absent.
“There wasn’t one plant around the edge … nothing inside, no waterfall and we were asked to make this more aesthetically pleasing,” he says. Because of its size and complexity, Artarian took it on as a multi-year project, installing beneficial plants along the edge and in the water.
But with the lack of aeration, the pond invited algae and invasive plant growth. So, he and his team tapped into the pond, built a 150-foot stream and installed a waterfall that could “harvest” the water, recirculate 60,000 gallons per hour and aerate the body of water. With such re-engineering, the pond’s water chemistry was changed, enabling the oxygenation needed for plants to flourish.
They worked with landscape architectural firm Hollander Design to ensure the water feature would blend with the greater landscape that was under redesign. Now, he says, “That environment is incredible. You have turtles and plants living in that pond and the client built a nature path around it so you can have a nice little hike.”
A Return to Wetlands
Artarian says native wetland projects such as those on Squabble Lane and Sebonac Road are trends with staying power as people seek out low-intervention landscapes. The shift in demand from koi ponds to low-impact native wetlands started around 2016 and has steadily upticked.
And that’s even more so since the pandemic, as many part-time residents are spending more time in their second homes or have moved in full time. Artarian says the longer residencies have caused homeowners to re-evaluate their immediate environments and change things up. Many, he says, like the native wetlands or ponds for adding biodiversity, and also for breaking up the monotony of the landscape.
Whether a new build or a conversion, he says “they are still going strong to the point where I really don’t think it’s a trend anymore. And it’s not going to go away because people see the benefit of having a native wetland on their property.”
Au naturel isn’t the only way to go. Architectural water features such as stone runnels and reflecting pools are popular, too, often created to mirror or complement a home’s architecture and geometry.
“The house will really dictate what the landscape architect is going to do and then, in turn, the kind of water feature that will be designed,” Artarian says. “Depending on the home and the landscape, these could be very modern features or something more formal in a European style.”
But whether modern or traditional, he says they offer meditative spaces. “Many times they are offset from the main property to offer a separate space and provide a moment of relaxation.”
