All language subtitles for Modern.Marvels.S22E15.Yard.Tech.Plus.1080p.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H264-BTN_track3_[eng]

- Americans love their lawns.

Every weekend, we mow,

blow,

and trim to perfection.

Turning the yard into a $100
billion a year industry.

- We've got tillers, lawn
tractors, chainsaws, trimmers,

blowers, every gadget
you can possibly imagine.

- But the ultimate
backyard Oasis,

isn't just about grass anymore.

- We're gonna have 10,000
gallons flowing through here.

It's gonna be very,
very beautiful.

- You'll never look at your
yard the same way again,

on Modern Marvels.

(upbeat music)

(upbeat music)

(water-sprinkler squirting)

(chainsaw cutting)

In yards across America,

the lawn is a labor of love.

The basis of this national
grassroots obsession,

turf grass.

Turf grass is a dense
cover of grass and roots

in the top layer of the soil.

Today, it's estimated there are

about 50 million
acres of it planted

in the United States.

(upbeat music)

And that 81% of
Americans have a lawn.

Grass is typically
a permanent fixture,

but one unusual lawn
was built for travel.

The university of Phoenix
stadium is a dome,

home to the NFL's
Arizona Cardinals.

But there's a problem.

Beyond hosting football,
(car engine revving)

it's also booked as
a site for events

that would pulverize
a grass surface.

- They can bring in Tractor
Pulls, Big Boy Toys,

I mean, you name it, and
we've had every kind of show

in the world in here.

But you can't do it, if
you have a field in here.

- The solution is a new twist
on indoor-outdoor carpet.

But this carpet is
made of real grass.

As the turf flourishes
outside in the Arizona sun,

spot watering and computer
controlled irrigation

keeps it green.

The field is in one
piece, not segmented.

So to move it inside, the turf
can't be rolled in sections.

Instead, when game time looms,

it rolls into the dome in
one hulking mass of grass.

The two acre field sits in
a massive tray in layers,

much like a birthday cake.

A steel support structure
and metal decking,

support the tray.

The plastic tray sits one inch
above the support structure,

to will allow for
water drainage below.

The turf grows on top of
one foot thick root zone.

This layer is a mixture of
sand and reinforcing fibers,

that provides optimum
stability for the athletes.

Moving this 19 million
pound chunk of sod,

takes surprisingly little power.

An extension cord and
a 13 track rail system,

are all that's needed.

A utility trench allows workers

to monitor the move from below.

(siren blaring)

- There's our warning
signal for the field moving.

(siren blaring)

Now we get to listen
to that for 70 minutes.

Here, we're looking at the
gear box to drive the wheel.

Here's a one horsepower motor.

There are 76 one horsepower
motors driving this field

at this time.

We connect it with
two electrical cords.

(siren blaring)

When we come halfway in,
we stop, unplug the cords,

take 'em to the other end.

We plug 'em in back
down the other end,

and then we'll come in the
second half of the way.

(high energy rock music)

- For all you homeowners
saddled with a that can't move.

The real action lies in
what you move on top of it.

(lawnmower engine revving)

From zero to seven miles
per hour in seconds flat.

With engines as powerful
as 30 horsepower.

The riding lawn
mower has been

the big dog of the
yard for decades.

- In the 1950s, the riding
mower was the new status symbol.

It was advertised
as a little car.

Some of them had martini glass
holders, all kinds of things,

and everybody wanted
a riding mower.

They were fun.

- Say hello to the new big dog.

It's called ZTR, or
Zero Turn Radiance.

And it's taking a big
bite out of the time,

it takes to mow the lawn.

- They are more productive.
They get the job done faster.

From a homeowner standpoint,
they're more fun to operate.

- Part of the fun of
a zero turn mower,

is trading the steering
wheel for a pair of levers.

The levers control two
independent motor drives,

that power the rear wheels.

(high energy rock music)

(lawnmower engine revving)

- This is a zero turn lawnmower.

The basic principle behind it,

if you make a right handed turn,

your right hand transmission
is not gonna work at all.

The a left hand transmission
does all the work.

(lawnmower engine revving)

If you notice it turns in place,

the right hand
wheel is not moving,

but the left hand wheel
is working completely.

- You can go into
much tighter places

and then get back out,

without lots of
extra maneuvering.

Or when you come
up to a small tree,

you can go around it

one time and be done.

If a homeowner can go out and
do the job in half the time,

that's worth a lot.

(lawnmower engine revving)

(upbeat music)

- In the centuries before
the ZTR and its brethren,

turning a pasture into
a lawn was a tedious

and uneven proposition.

As 17th century English
gardens gained popularity,

the owners began to employ
small armies of workers,

wielding scythes.

- It was a long stick with a
large blade on the end of it,

that an individual would
swing back and forth,

and that's how the lawn or
grass area would then be cut.

Very labor intensive.

Took a good deal of skill to
be able to use that over time.

Especially, if you're trying
to get a low and level cut.

- In 1830, English inventor,
Edwin Budding envisioned

a better way to get
a low and level cut.

He built a large
cast iron machine,

with a revolving cutting
cylinder at the front.

He called it "A Real Lawnmower,"

and it's a design
that lives on today.

A real mower shearers grass
like a pair of scissors.

A central shaft rotates a
series of cutting blades.

The turning blades come into
contact with a bed-knife.

The scissor action cuts
the blades of grass.

For decades, few people saw
the need for a lawnmower,

but in the United
States, that changed.

When the urban lawn
first came into vogue.

Over 38 patents for real
type mowers were issued

between 1868 and 1873.

At the turn of the century,

several mower inventions
added small steam,

and even gasoline
fueled engines.

Many inventors lay claimed
to the rotary lawn mower.

But in 1931, the Louisville
electric manufacturing company

built and marketed one
of the world's first.

The rotary design ultimately,

became a standard by the 1960s.

The rotary mower
employs a single blade,

revolving at around 2,800
revolutions per minute,

to cut the grass, and then
discharge it through a shoot.

A mulching mower uses a
higher deck without a shoot,

to suspend the grass.

A blade with a
longer cutting edge

repeatedly chops it to pieces,

and returns it as mulch
back into the lawn.

- That puts the nutrients
from the grass blades,

the decomposition of the grass
blades back into the turf.

If you're bagging,

you don't have to
dispose of the clipping.

So there's the landfill issues

and containment issues
of grass clippings.

- So how much do
we love our lawns?

Landscaping is more than a
$100 billion a year industry.

For decades, there's been one
goal almost all homeowners

across America have
been striving towards.

(lawnmower engine revving)

The perfect lawn.

Today's technology makes
the backbreaking chores

of working around the
yard, a little easier.

(lawnmower engine revving)

Since 1907, The Toro
Company, has been one

of the leading lawnmower
makers in the United States.

The Toro testing and design
center in Bloomington, Minnesota

designs and builds
mower prototypes.

The pieces are laser
cut and assembled.

They're then subjected
to a battery of tests

that can last for years.

The engineers test for safety,
performance, and durability.

The standard durability drill
is called, the bump test.

- Here, we try to simulate the
entire life of the machine,

which may be 3000 hours,

but we try to
accelerate the life

by having the biggest
possible bumps

on what we call a role dyno,

which shocks the machine
at a very regular basis.

And we try to get the end result

of a life out of the machine

in a reasonable period of time,

which might be a
month or two months.

- Mowers are noisy.

So Toro engineers
are constantly trying

to build a quieter machine.

The sound test tries
to pinpoint noise

that can be eliminated.

- What we're looking for is
objectionable sounds or noises

that might be coming
from the panels

that aren't on the machine.

The engine, the
fan, the hydraulics.

- While microphones measure,
external machine noise,

a second test judges the
effects on the operator's ears.

- This is the test where
we've tried to measure

what the sound level would be
at the operator's ear,

and we try to stay within
certain measurable limits.

- Not all yards are flat.

So Toro uses a tilt table test

to determine machine
rollover angles.

- It has two main purposes.

One, to check the parking
break of the machines.

And second, is to check
the overall stability.

We go up to first 16.7 degrees,

which is the minimum
level for parking brakes.

And then we go all the way up
to in this particular case,

25 degrees, which is the
upper limit of stability.

- But even if your lawn
is perfectly level,

what if there's
something unexpected

lurking beneath the grass?

The drastic stake test is
an alarming, suburban vision

of what could happen.

- Is to represent the
worst we could imagine,

a customer doing in their lawn,

if they hit the water
main, or a sprinkler head,

or other objects in the lawn.

- A one inch
diameter steel stake

is positioned
below ground level.

The engineers engage
the mower blade,

move it over the impact
zone, and then cringe.

(lawnmower blade snaps)

- And what we're after
there is to make sure

that there are no
failures on the machine,

to make sure that the
machine can still be used

for the intended purpose,
which is cutting grass.

- These and dozens
of other tests,

health engineers build
safer and better mowers.

Toro was even tested an
autonomous lawnmower,

with high precision
global positioning

and obstacle recognition
capabilities.

It represents one
possible future option

for commercial and municipal
grounds, and golf courses.

But the future is now for
the gadget happy homeowner.

Luis Medina founded his company,
Evatech to build a mower

for people who would rather do
their yard work sitting down.

- I used to cut my grass with
regular typical push mower.

And I wanted to come out
with something easier to use,

not just for me,
but for my friends.

- The Evatech machine puts
mowing at your fingertips,

with wireless joystick control.

- Well, here we have
the transmitter,

has two joysticks
that controls a unit.

The transmitter sends
the signal to the brain,

the brain decodes the signal

through a very
sophisticated algorithm,

that makes mower go
forward, reverse,

and zero turning radius.

- All that movement is powered
by an electric hybrid engine.

A separate gasoline engine
operates the cutting blade.

It even comes with its own
seed spreader attachment.

Choosing a remote
controlled lawnmower,

over a self propelled
or a ZTR model,

is a lifestyle choice.

But there are other ways
to beautify your lawn.

Inside this greenhouse
complex in Marysville, Ohio,

even a snowstorm can't delay
the future of the American lawn.

The grass breeders at
Scotts Miracle-Gro Company,

do more than just figure out
how to keep your lawn green.

They're conducting
experiments aimed

at re-engineering
the lawn itself.

As public water supplies
dwindle, and fuel prices rise.

They're trying to breed
grasses that need less water

and less mowing.

- These greenhouse facilities
allow us to conduct some

of the more controlled
and precise experiments

that we do with the
Scott's company.

We can control light.

We can control the
soils that we use.

We can control the irrigation,

the nutrition that
we're providing,

and really simulate just
about any environment

that you'd find any
place in the world.

- The greenhouse
contains multiple rooms,

each design to simulate
different climates

while growing a
variety of grasses.

In one room, they're
developing slow growing,

or slow mow grass to
give lawn mowers a break.

These grasses are bred to
possess fewer of the hormones

that encourage plant
cells to elongate.

- And then they will
cross those and go through

this plant breeding that
can take up to 12 years,

to develop a grass that will
then give a desirable lawn

without requiring
a lot of mowing.

- Another experiment
could put an end

to brown lawn syndrome,

by cross breeding
popular grass varieties,

with those that can
withstand desert conditions.

- These grasses are
in a drought test.

They look the same now,
they have the same soil.

The difference is we are
starting to withhold the water.

After a period of time,
some of them will die.

Some of them will
just turn brown,

and maybe green up later
when they have water.

The key is we're
trying to find the ones

that are gonna last.

You would think that
the beautiful patch

of green grass we've all
come to know as a lawn,

is an idea that dates back
to the Romans and antiquity.

But surprisingly, it's a
fairly recent phenomenon.

The word lawn dates to
16th century Europe,

and the old English word
"Launde" meaning open space.

- That simply was an area
that livestock grazed and that

that grazing kept
the grass short.

And that short crop grass is
really the genesis of lawns.

- Prior to the 16th century,
there were few lawns in Europe.

Pastures and public green
spaces contained a smorgasbord

of grass varieties.

- The grass types
were quite different

than what we see here.

In fact, some of the grasses
or early lawns rather,

were actually things
like Chamomile or Clover,

and Meadow grasses.

And these were things
that were native

to Northern Europe at the time.

- French landscape
architect, André Le Nôtre,

designed one of the first
Ornamental lawns in 1661,

at the gardens of
Versailles', near Paris.

Soon after, British nobleman,

began planting formal
English gardens.

But for the English
peasant class,

the lawn was still
an impractical dream.

The grass wasn't
necessarily greener

in the American colonies.

Native grasses like
Broom Straw and wild Rye,

didn't have the nutrients

to sustain the grazing
animals brought from Europe.

- So very early on
in the 1600s

colonists were writing
home to Europe,

asking for clover and
grass seed to be sent.

Many of the colonists
animals starved to death,

over the winter
before the colonists

could get grass seed
that would sustain them.

- Even with imported
European grass,

a low cut English style lawn

didn't germinate
on American soil,

until after the civil war.

Then by the late 1800s
the lawn took root,

at least in the city.

Mechanical lawn
mowers, fertilizer,

and access to city water made
growing grass affordable.

The lawn also got a
boost from the people

who depended on lush grass,

the United States
Golf Association.

Thanks to its research,
improved strains

of Kentucky blue grass and
other varieties hit the market.

But it took a suburb to
spark a yard revolution.

In 1947, Levittown became one of

the first suburban
tracked home developments.

- Levittown was built in
potato fields in Long Island.

There were no trees.

And the easiest way to cover

the dirt and the
construction scars was grass.

- Soon middle class America
was obsessed with grass lawns.

Everyone wanted one,

and the Scott's company
was happy to deliver.

Founded by civil war
veteran, Owen Scott in 1868,

the company learned that the
quickest way to a man's heart,

was through his golf clubs.

- They were very
early mass marketers.

They bought or obtained the
mailing lists for golf clubs,

and they targeted golfers.

And they sent out
newsletters to tell people

how to have a home lawn that
looked like a golf course.

- Today, Golf courses
and American lawns,

are cut from the same
roll, with the sod cutter.

- Sod is instant lawn for
those not patient enough

to plant it themselves and wait
a few weeks for it to develop.

The sod just gives
you an automatic lawn.

It's nice and green.

And you know, some
people prefer that.

- A sod farm operates
like a nursery.

It grows grass specific
to the local climate

over a period of 18 months.

A sod cutter skims the
turf a quarter of an inch

below the surface,
creating carpet like rolls.

Rolls provide a mature lawn
in a matter of minutes.

But some homeowners prefer
their grass homegrown.

For that, they need
pure straight

from the bag grass seed.

- It's a good idea to
have multiple varieties

involved in a seed mix.

We try and mix and match
a strength and a weakness

against each grass so that if
something happens in a lawn

like a disease, for example,

it doesn't affect
all the varieties.

There's something
there to take over.

- But some homeowners
are not purists.

Seeding a yard takes time,
and sod can be very costly.

For them, imitation is the
sincerest form of ground cover.

This new lawn in
Phoenix, Arizona

is getting a buff and polish.

But look closer.

The grass is fake.

Synthetic grass or new grass,

is a vast improvement
on Astro-turf.

The fake grass pad that
carpeted sports fields and yards

in the 1970s and eighties.

It was made of polyethylene,

an abrasive material, with no
shock absorption qualities.

- With the new grass
products versus real grass.

In addition to your watering,

mowing, fertilizing, thatching,

new grass, the only
maintenance required is

an occasional leaf-blower,
plastic rake, or a broom,

just to remove debris.

- Today's synthetic
grass, version 2.0,

is made of the less
abrasive polypropylene,

with twisted nylon fibers
for shock absorption.

Customers can even choose
their own imitation variety,

Rye, Fescues or Bluegrass,

and have it pre-mowed to
the height they desire.

Synthetic turf is an
alternative to natural grass

and a possible answer to
shrinking water resources.

Lurking beneath the turf in
millions of American yards,

is a gadget that dispenses
the elixir crucial

to the survival of a lawn.

- These days, a lot of people
are concerned with drought

and how we're using water.

We don't wanna waste water.

It's a very precious resource.

- In many yards, this
resource flows through

an underground sprinkler system.

The homeowner programs a
computerized controller

that executes a
watering schedule.

But there are some systems
that think for themselves,

their only master, is
the weather itself.

(lightning striking)

For these models, the
computer links wirelessly

with a nearby weather
monitoring station.

The weather station measures
temperature, humidity,

and other data,

and then transmits
hourly updates.

The controller
receives the data,

and then tells the sprinkler
system when to water

and for how long.

- It actually knows how much
water the landscape is using,

and puts back only the amount
of water that the plants need

without any over-watering,
without runoff,

and without waste.

Water savings can be tremendous.

We found you can save as much
as 30, even 40 percent

on your water bill.

- With savings like that,
you can bet smart irrigation

will eventually become a
standard in the American yard.

We've come a long way
from the garden hose.

In the early 1870s,

the BF Goodrich company began
manufacturing the rubber hose.

It made effective watering of
the American lawn, possible.

In the early 1900s

along came the first true
sprinkler, The "Pluviette".

The water drove a turbine.

The turbine distributed
the water stream

while turning on an axis.

But better designs lay ahead.

In 1935, businessman
Clem Lefraitra,

began marketing a sprinkler
that was first developed

to irrigate California
orange groves.

It was called "The Horizontal
Action Impact Sprinkler."

It marked the beginning
of the Rain Bird company.

- The one I'm holding
is a model 60,

it's the first production model,

that Rain Bird
actually made and sold.

It will go 360 degrees,

in other words, a full circle

as it's spraying the water.

- The impact sprinkler has
a spring loaded spoon arm,

that repeatedly interrupts
the water stream,

creating an evenly
spread curtain of water.

As the arm returns,

it strikes the sprinkler
head causing it to rotate.

Today's sprinklers,
go to boot camp,

at the Rain Bird testing
facility in Tucson, Arizona.

On the demo lawn,
both rotary sprinklers

and circular pop-up sprinklers,

that have survived various
water torture tests,

are taking a final exam.

That includes the 115-E,

one of the world's

most powerful gear
driven rotor sprinklers.

It casts a jet of water
as far as 115 feet,

providing 360
degrees of coverage.

For golf course or
backyard mega lawns,

just one of these monsters
can water an area equivalent

to the size of a football field.

In the test center, Rain
Bird's team of hydro engineers,

puts the sprinklers
crucial head assemblies

through pure hell.

- We literally just run them,
and run them, and run them,

until they break, find
out why they break.

We fix that and
continue to run 'em,

and make a better product.

- Sprinklers can also take a
beating in your own backyard.

An accidental water pressure
surge, called water hammer,

can occur in a long
section of pipe.

(water gushing)

The result could be explosive.

The burst test simulates
the potential yard disaster.

- So we've set up an
extreme test out here,

that can get hundreds
of pounds of pressure,

400 plus pounds of pressure.

And we make sure that our
sprinkler heads can withstand

that kind of pressure.

- Rain Bird sprinklers
perform under pressure,

but can they deliver water
to every blade of grass?

- This is Rain Bird's
distribution test.

We have over 1000
catch cans here,

and we're measuring the
amount of water in each one.

The they're equally
spaced apart,

and we're trying to
get a very smooth

even distribution pattern.

Computers measure
the amount of water,

and we can adjust the
nozzle technology so

that we get a perfect
even distribution.

- Distribution is never an
issue with drip irrigation.

This water stingy method is
designed for trees, bushes,

gardens, flower beds, or
any other part of the yard,

except the grass.

- It uses, what we call
spot watering emitters,

or a small area emitters.

It literally drips the
water on drop-by-drop,

and you run it for much
longer periods of time,

and just at the base of
each individual plant.

- Irrigation and its
evolving technologies are

the mandatory accessories
for a green lawn.

But one trip to the lawn
and garden aisle reveals

a garage clogging
collection of yard gadgets.

You may not even know
that you need.

The tractor supply company
showcases the latest technology

for the Do-It-Yourself,
backyard pro.

- We got tillers, lawn
tractors, chainsaws, trimmers,

blowers, every gadget
you can possibly imagine

to use in your yard and to
keep it green all summer long.

- One versatile gadget
is the yard's version

of a Swiss army knife.

- This is the basic
line of weed trimmers

everybody's used to seeing,

but the newest thing in the
yard is the four cycle trimmer.

It has a highly efficient motor

that keeps the
environment clean.

It also has a fast
attached system,

where you can put on the
regular weed trimmer end,

an edger.

You can also use a tree pruner.

A hedge trimmer.

And a blower attachment
all with one unit,

and use one motor in your garage

as opposed to having
different pieces of equipment.

- Detested by many, the
ear splitting leaf blower,

is being converted to
a kinder, gentler tool.

- What we have here is the
latest in the backpack blowers.

This has 140 mile
an hour wind speed,

a real low vibration motor,
and a smart start spring.

It'll help it easier to start.

A lot less fatigue on you

when you don't have
all the vibration,

but it does hang off for
your back and easy controls,

and you can work
with it for hours.

- The 21st century
home store carries

an endless catalog
of power gadgets

to help the Do-It-Yourselfer,
keep order in the yard.

(chainsaw motor revving)

High above the backyard,

a crew is preparing to
bring down a monster.

Trees are the pillars that
can give a yard scale,

but sometimes they
must come down.

(chainsaw motor revving)

Bringing a tree down is
only half the battle.

The other half is
cutting it down to size.

The wood chipper is the
Godzilla of yard gadgets.

It's designed with rotating
drums or discs and sharp knives,

that can devour a tree
and reduce it to sawdust,

in a matter of minutes.

Bring down a tree is a
relatively quick job,

but planting a tree and
waiting for a shady canopy,

could take 15 or 20 years.

For those who can't
wait that long,

an outfit like the Davey Company
can supersize your order.

They're a select
fraternity of tree movers.

The Davey crew hasn't met
a tree they can't handle.

When the trunk is 24 inches
in diameter or larger,

they use a gantry system.

They trench beneath the tree,

and insert pipes to act
as a lifting platform.

- It's a hydraulic process
of actually lifting

or jacking the tree up.

Very similar to what you
see in the building movers

or the structural movers
around the country,

that move buildings.

Once we've got the
tree lifted vertically,

we have tracks where
we can roll it,

or we bring in our trailer

that we assemble
alongside the tree,

and then roll it
beneath the tree.

- If the tree is less than
12 inches in diameter,

a customized trailer mounted
spade is all they need.

The hydraulic spade uses a
high pressure pump to drive its

blades deep
beneath the roots.

One scoop, and this
tree is ready to roll.

Davey company put down
roots in the US in 1880.

By the late 1920s,

the company had perfected
a moving method.

- They used what was
called an Irish Whip,

or some people called
it an English Spar.

And it was a device where you

actually, mounted wheels
to the tree itself,

and tilted it down and toed
it to the receiving site,

and then stood it back
up and planted it.

- In this muddy field at a tree
farm west of Houston, Texas,

the Davey crew is preparing
to move a 40 foot tall,

50,000 pound Red Oak tree.

This is one of six trees
destined for a single backyard.

Once the crew has excavated
the soil around the trunk,

trimming the roots is
the biggest concern.

- Our initial process is to
come in and root prune the tree.

We determine that for this tree

to have a success
transplant,

we size the root ball
at 12 foot diameter.

- The root ball is a
neat packaging cased

in burlap and steel wire.

It's the trees life
support system.

The crew trims the
roots to a safe length

based on the size of the tree,

and then drives in steel pipes.

- Once we have a
significant number

of pipes beneath the ball,

we'll mount a beam with U-bolts,

to hold the pipe in
a rigid platform.

So essentially we
have a grid of pipe,

which is our steel
lifting device.

- Rainstorms have
turned the earth

at this tree farm
into thick mud.

The moisture has increased
the overall weight by some 5%.

Getting the heavy tree out of
the muck is no simple task.

The tightly wound root ball
and its support platform,

will prevent damage
during transit.

A tree hurdling down the freeway
is officially a wide-load,

and must travel with
a police escort.

Upon its arrival,

in Houston's elegant
River Oaks neighborhood.

The team begins
the arduous process

of maneuvering the
trailer into the backyard.

Now it's time for
some heavy lifting.

This tree move is called a
round ball crane process.

It will use a 120 ton crane,

to try and lift the 50,000
pound tree to its new home.

The crane must work
in a tight space.

Existing tree limbs, and power
lines, complicate the lift.

- We've left the
tarp on, on purpose

so that as we brush
by this existing tree,

we don't snag a limb.

Now we're gonna pick it up,

and lift it up and
over the house,

and set it down in a
receiving spot.

- The connections are
checked and rechecked.

The last thing anyone wants

is a 40 foot Oak tree
falling into the house.

Once the tree is airborne,
all eyes are on the root ball.

- As you notice, the root ball
is the integrity of the tree.

We treat that like a
cake, and therefore,

we don't want to crack
the icing on the cake.

That's why we do
all of our lifting

from the structural bottom.

- With a tree dangling a
few feet above its new home.

It's spun to find the right spot

that will cast shade
near the house.

- Well, these limbs are longer.

Let's let them go out that way.

That way, to that side.

- Stop, stop there.

- The move is complete, but
the work is far from over.

- All of the trees that are
transplanted essentially are

going into a critical care
method at that point in time,

because we are cutting
off a good percentage

of the root system.

So we're trying to
regenerate new roots,

once the tree is installed.

- The key to root growth
is efficient watering,

and loose air-rated soil.

The crew buries, perforated
drainage pipe on a slope,

to ensure that gravity will
carry water away from the tree,

and avoid over-watering.

A backfill of loose
soil compost will help

with the drainage.

- Essentially, it's a
two to three year process

to regenerate enough
of a root system

for the tree to
survive on its own,

without the critical
care treatments.

- The Davey company has moving
trees down to a science.

The American backyard has
long been the home turf

of man's best friend.

But today, a new creature is
challenging the dog's domain,

and you don't even have
to clean up after him.

Koi fish, originated in China,
and in the 19th century,

the Japanese bread them
for enhanced color.

They are now tenants of a new
vision of the American yard,

The Waterscape.

This living, breathing pond

is a suburban wilderness
adventure designed

to bring out the
child in all of us.

Pacific outdoor living in
La Crescenta, California,

has been taking the yard
aquatic for more than 20 years.

- The ecosystem we create
with our pond is a community

of plants, animals,

and microorganisms that we
introduce into the area,

and they all depend on
each other to survive.

- Before the tranquility
comes the heavy lifting.

Take this project at a new
home in Bel Air, California.

- So basically we have
about 55 feet of waterfall.

It starts up here with a spring,
and it's gonna come here,

we're gonna have a nice
cascading waterfall.

We're gonna have 10,000
gallons flowing through here.

So it's gonna be a really, nice,
loud, noisy type waterfall.

It's gonna be very,
very beautiful.

- The waterfall will feed into
a two foot deep Koi paradise.

First, comes a felt underlayment

to prevent weeds from invading.

Then a rubber liner will
form the bottom of the pond.

- Once this is set in place,

we set the rocks
all the way around,

starting from the
bottom, we rock up,

and get the different
levels rocked in.

And then we pour in gravel.

- Just as the dog
gets a doghouse.

There's another pond feature

that every Koi literally
can't live without.

- So this is basically
a Koi garage.

In this area, we have
different predators,

there's birds, and coyotes,
and raccoons, and so forth.

So this gives a place
for the Koi to hide.

And really the water only
needs to be about two feet deep

for the Koi to
actually be protected.

- The Koi aren't expected
to do their own housework.

This pond is self-cleaning.

- So this is the skimmer,

which is basically
a mechanical filter.

So we have the water level,

is about one inch
below this line here,

and allows the leaves to
be drawn into the basket.

And the leaves are picked up,

and then you can
take out the basket,

pull the leaves out and
rinse it out, dump it.

And then we have a filter mat,
that sits on top of there.

- At the top of the falls,

a second water
scape filter relies

on an unlikely collaborator.

- Beneficial bacteria
is a very important part

of the ecosystem.

It's something that we
introduce to the pond,

to help with
controlling the algae.

It's not gonna stop
the algae growth,

but it helps starve the
algae of its food source.

- The bacteria are introduced
to the top of the waterfall

in a bio fall filter.

The filter contains lava rocks

that encourage
bacteria to colonize.

The bacteria consumes
enzymes and other nutrients,

and minimize the overgrowth
of algae in the ecosystem.

- The whole stream
actually works

as a biological
filter as well too,

'cause you're gonna get bacteria

that will colonize
throughout all the gravel,

and all the surface
space on the stream.

- The Koi do their part by
feeding along the pond's bottom,

dislodging debris that
will end up in the skimmer.

The fish are famously tough,

and can easily survive
freezing temperatures

by hibernating beneath the ice.

This water scape is complete.

Once the landscaping
is finished,

this yard will
certainly draw a crowd.

- A lot of these areas that we
put these water features in,

is a location where maybe
they weren't using very much.

It was just another patch
of grass in their lawn.

But now we actually put a
living, breathing organism

in that area.

- Self-sufficient water
scapes are making some

rethink our vision of
the traditional yard

as a carpet of green turf.

That turf requires resources,

like fertilizer,
pesticides, herbicides,

and in most cases, a
great deal of water.

What is the future
of the American yard?

- I think that's the
struggle as municipalities

look to balance the needs of
the homeowner and the desire

to have a nice lush lawn,

the desire to use scarce
resources appropriately

and manage them well.

- We have created a Savannah,
from coast-to-coast.

This whole idea of the
lawn around the house,

has become a national aesthetic.

It's only maybe 150 years old,

but this is what people
have been taught to believe.

- No matter what
you cover it with,

real grass, fake grass,
trees, or water wonderlands.

The yard is a refuge and
buffer zone.

It's our chance to create a
particular vision of nature,

right in our own backyard.