Water

Very few gardens I design lack some sort of water feature, especially in urban settings where both the tactile nature of flow and the soothing sound of the splash combine to drown out the intrusiveness of city living. Like everything else though, it's easy to overdo. What you certainly want to avoid is trying to "out nature" Mother Nature. Fake little ponds with immitation streams look exactly that: fake. In most garden settings, you'll be far more successful with fountains and pools that take their cue from the house architecture. Here, in a Cambridge, Massachusetts garden, an antique English lead lion mounted on a simple stone plinth spills happily into the small basin below.

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