Landscape Compatibility

I mentioned yesterday that I wanted to "re-landscape" the patio. When we bought the house there was a fountain on the patio but it was shoved into one end of the patio and had no relationship to any space....it was just there. In addition the back of the fountain was white tile which of course over time has been etched with deposits from our heavy mineral water. It really isn't very attractive anymore. Although we do a lot of our own gardening in Houston, we getting too old to bring in bricks and cement to make the beds and the dirt to fill them. So we need help.

I've had a couple of landscape people come to look at the patio but they didn't have any suggestions or ideas that seemed to be more than some new plants but even the plants were ordinary...no pizazz. Or, they looked down their nose at such a "small" job. Yesterday, I had a new guy come in, Alfonso Alarcon and right away I knew that we were compatible and I've heard that his prices are reasonable. Although he saw the problem with the existing fountain, he said let's take out the fountain but leave the structure around it and use it to add architectural interest to the patio. I like that way of thinking. He will be back next week with several preliminary sketches to talk about. I can't wait.

Also in conjunction with the patio, we have found a stone mason in Colonia San Antonio just a few blocks from us. I found out that he did a fountain for a neighbor and it was very nice. We asked him to come look at our patio and give us some idea of what a new cantera fountain would cost.....$250 USA for a fountain that is approximately 3 feet across for the water area. Can you believe it?