Awards Kathy
Pufahl Container Competition, 2009
Photos of the event including Paul Steinkamp with the winning containers.

Golden Trowel Award, 1997
In December '97, we won Garden Design magazine's Golden Trowel Award in the professional category for the design and construction of the water feature at the nursery. Photographs and a brief history of the project appeared in the December '97/January '98 issue of Garden Design . We thought we would share it with you here:

Garden in Motion: Inspiration bubbles up through pool, bog and trough
"We never do anything in a small way. Twenty-four years ago, we wanted room to grow about a dozen tomato plants. Our Albany, New York, town house backyard had become overcrowded with the plants that we had amassed as landscape architects working for New York State, so we bought a 38-acre farm and used it as a second home (and garden). As there is no end to the energy of youth, we renovated the apple orchard on the property and, on weekends, dabbled in pressing and selling cider. By 1982, we'd decided to pursue our dream of leaving behind our city jobs and home and founding a nursery.

The same think-big principle applied when we put in a water feature this year. Two 50-year-old 'Northern Spy' apple trees and a row of 'Merrill' magnolias created an enclosure between our residence and the nursery (which specializes in hardy perennials and unusual woody plants). The spot was an ideal setting for a large and visually significant complex of pools--including a planted and an unplanted water garden, as well as a drained and an undrained bog. When finished, the installation became a wonderful setting in which to show our customers the plants we sell. The results far exceeded our expectations--but we swore that this would be the last time we mixed and poured concrete by hand!

And, there was a lot of stuff to mix. The trough that's cantilevered over the largest body of water is made of concrete and so are the footholdings of the basins. The walls are topped off with landscape ties, and the bridge is constructed of landscape timbers. Both the ties and the timbers are covered with planks that conceal the liners' edge and provide a finished look. The trough, fed by a 3,000-gallon-per-hour pump, spills water throughout its length.

The unplanted area functions as a reflecting pool, which gives the sight a formal look, as does the dark color of the water. The tint (achieved by adding Pylam Black Dye, made especially for ponds) makes the water appear deeper than its 18 inches, improves the reflectivity of the surface, highlights both water plants and any bubbles, and reduces algae because less sunlight can penetrate the liquid. The bogs' liners are covered with an 18-inch-deep mix of clay, sandy loam, humus, and composted manure. We poked holes in the lining of one bog to allow drainage and to let us see how the plants there would react to different conditions.

Now that the water feature is complete, we hear the sound of water all day long. Frogs have taken up residence in the pools, and their songs waft into our bedroom warm evenings and follow us as we work in the nursery. If we were to do it all over again, the pool (and any other project we've taken on, for that matter) would be larger, never smaller."

~Paul and Mardell Steinkamp