More specifically, the bubbling, splashing, gurgling sound of rushing water is the stuff of daily curtain calls. The stage set is green and glowing; filled with daffodils and dogwoods in spring and ferns, sedum and astilbe in summer. Shrubs such as sumac, boxwood, viburnum, hydrangea and creeping juniper provide a constant backdrop and the fall color is spectacular.
When they moved to St. Louis 10 years ago and were looking at homes, Billie Jean recalls Ken staring for several minutes out the windows of their current home to the hillside in back, much to the consternation of an impatient realtor. “He was already figuring out where he would create a waterfall,” she notes.
Given Ken’s background, his fascination with water is not surprising. With a father who was a commercial fisherman, he had first lived in Massachusetts, then moved to Alaska and finally to Seattle. “In the summer I worked up in Alaska on my Dad’s fishing boats any chance I got,” he says. His career, as a direct mail and e-commerce business specialist, has taken him to more land-locked locations most recently bringing him to St. Louis as president and chief executive officer of Weissman Dancewear.
Water features have been important in every home the Ellingsen’s have owned. “I have to be near the sound of water,” Ken says. “When I saw the hillside, I knew it lent itself to the creation of a waterfall.”
Ken is an expert at studying landscapes. His watercolors of favorite locales decorate the walls of the Ellingsen’s home. Using an artist’s eye, he could see the natural looking stream that would tie into the wooded hillside incorporating existing dogwoods and native plants as part of the garden. “We wanted a wooded setting; we wanted to keep what was green and growing and work around it. We didn’t want our landscaping to look too residential,” he continues.
As luck would have it, a painter who was working at the house learned what Ken had in mind for his back yard and suggested that Aaron Callies of Naturescape Designs would be a good person to contact. When the two met, “it was almost like Aaron could read my mind,” Ken recalls.
Aaron drew his inspiration from the Pickle Springs Natural Area near Farmington, where he likes to hike. He strategically placed stream elevations and rocks to maximize the rush of the water and allow it to splash into a koi and waterlily-filled pond. In addition, he pushed back the hillside with boulders but allowed for planting areas so that pond and adjacent patio would blend fully into the landscape. “I got my ideas from nature itself,” he explains. “I wanted to create a retreat and an inviting outdoor living space without the feeling that the hillside was encroaching on the house or the patio.”
Taking advantage of the windows across the back of the house to bring the waterfall and wooded hillside indoors, “Aaron put together a design and we absolutely loved it,” says Ken, whose interest in ponds and streams has led him to become a member of the Gateway Koi and Pond Club. “We have our own woods and our own oasis. Every morning, I sit out there with a cup of coffee.” “Anytime the weather is decent, we have the windows open, and the sound of water fills the house,” adds Billie Jean.
