Just recently, the Basehor resident finally got one.

As Stan and Kristin Briggs of S&K Landscaping arranged the top rows of flat rocks around the rim of a newly dug 2,100-gallon pool in Coble’s yard, Coble and his dachshund, Maggie, watched. Soon Maggie, undaunted by the water, edged along the rocks, sniffing at the water.

“We’ll get some fish put in there, and Maggie will be going for swims,” Coble said, laughing.

Coble had learned about the Brigg’s new Tonganoxie business, S&K Landscaping, through Kristin’s parents, who store a trailer in Coble’s Basehor storage facility.

“I’d been wanting a pond and waterfall for a long time,” Coble said.

So when he learned about the Briggs’ new business, he gave them a call.

After a week of work, the 8-foot-by-4-foot pond was ready for the final touch three underwater lights, one at each end and one in the center, shining up toward the waterfall. Though the lights have clear lenses, Coble plans to add colored lenses.

“If you don’t have colored lights in them, I think you miss what it looks like,” Coble said.

Stan Briggs said he had 15 years of landscaping experience in eastern Tennessee.

The couple recently decided to relocate to Tonganoxie. Kristin’s parents live in Lansing and her mother, Judy Barbee, teaches special education at Tonganoxie Elementary School.

In Tennessee, Briggs said, he had a crew of 27 working for him. Although since moving here in June it’s just been he and Kristin working, he’s planning for the business to grow.

“I would like, in a couple of years, to be the number one landscaper here,” Briggs said.

With the trend toward continued construction in the area, he noted, there seems to be a need for a landscaper.

“We’ve stayed busy since we’ve been here,” Briggs said. “Hopefully, by next year we’ll have two crews going.”

Kristin, who plans to eventually stay inside handling the office work, said the manual labor has kept her in shape. When she started, it was a struggle to lift 40-pound bags of cement. Now, she said, she’s hoisting 80 pounds.

S&K’s work extends to various areas of landscaping, Briggs said, including stonescaping, retaining walls and plantings and trees.

And, he noted, although people often tend to put landscaping plans on hold until spring, winter is an excellent time to do the work.

When spring’s warm weather arrives, the plants and trees are already nestled in their place, ready for summer’s growth.