As featured in California Landscaping's March-April edition, Bertotti Landscaping of Petaluma won best overall entry in the landscaping competition, for their landscaping of a single-family home on a lagoon in Belvedere (Marin County). The biggest challenge: Keeping the salt water out of the work area.

"A lot of our work for the boat ramp and the dock was below water level in the lagoon. The Solution: Installing a whale-sized rubber dam you could walk on like a giant waterbed. A lot of the concrete work to support the stone and on the boat dock was about two feet below the water level in the lagoon."

Made of a rubber-liner-type material, Bertotti found it at www.waterstructures.com. "The beauty of it was we carried it out, floated it and held it in place as we were filling it with water from the lagoon. The it started settling into the bottom and conformed to the shape of the lagoon floor."

A sweep of the floor beforehand ensured no sharp rocks or projections would puncture the dam. Then water was pumped out of the work area.