South Lakeland — Low-Launch Dock, Seawall, Path to the Water

A live oak leaning out over a former phosphate pit in south Lakeland sets the terms for the work that surrounds it

The oak leans out over the water at an angle. Resurrection fern runs the underside of the largest limb, and Spanish moss hangs in long strands through the shade beneath it. The trunk is set into the bank a few feet back from the waterline on a private lake in south Lakeland, a former phosphate pit in Polk County.

The bank had been losing ground, and the dock attached to it was past repair. The stair down from the yard was no longer safe to walk. The first quote written for the property was a replacement of what had been there — railed dock, new stair, like for like.

The second design dropped the railed stair, ran a path along the shoreline in its place, and kept the existing plantings.

Vinyl sheet pile with a pressure-treated cap went in first, tied back with Manta Ray anchors. The anchors are driven into the soil behind the wall and then rotated to set, the steel plate turning crosswise to the shaft so it locks against the earth above it. The wall runs the length of the shoreline. The oak's roots sit in the soil the wall now holds. [FIELD NOTE: sheet pile height and embedment, Manta Ray anchor spacing, total wall run in feet]

Pressure-treated framing on the seawall cap extends over the water, with a lower deck fixed at the elevation a kayak floats at. From that lower deck the water surface is at the height of a sitting person's knee. The old railing is gone. A jon boat tied to the deck rides at the same level as the planks. [FIELD NOTE: dock length and width, low deck dimensions and height above water]

Gravel runs along the base of the slope at the top of the seawall, the full length of the wall, and turns down to meet the dock. Pressure-treated timber edges hold the gravel where the grade falls. Above the path, planting beds step back into the slope on intermittent terraces — ferns, calla lily, elephant ear, iris. The fern fronds break over the timber edges and into the gravel.