Ponds, Fountains,
Contents Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Hardiness and Heat Zone Maps . . . . . . . 8 Part 1 A World of Inspiration 11 CHAPTER 1 Inspiring Ideas: Past and Present 12 Early Civilizations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Mid-to-Late 1800s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Modern Water Gardens . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 CHAPTER 2 Planning Your Water Feature 24 Consider Your Lifestyle . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Choosing a Site . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Size and Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 CHAPTER 3 Choosing a Pond Liner and Edging 48 Liners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 Edging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 Designing the Pond Configuration . . . . 60 Part 2 Installing Your Pond 65 CHAPTER 4 Start with a Pond Foundation 66 Special Sites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 Planting-Shelf Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 Extra Support for Pond Foundations . . 78 Optional Cement Overliner . . . . . . . . . . 80 Installing a Preformed Shell . . . . . . . . . 81 CHAPTER 5 Moving Water Features 86 Design Pointers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 Choosing and Buying a Liner . . . . . . . . 88 Moving Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 Plumbing Your Moving Water Feature . 96 CHAPTER 6 Fountains and Light 110 Style and Placement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110 Spray Fountains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114 Statuary Fountains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 Lighting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
CHAPTER 7 Bridges and Stonework 126 Wooden Bridges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126 Stepping-Stones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132 Part 3 Wetland and Rain Gardens 135 CHAPTER 8 Natural Swimming Pools, Pondside Wetlands, and Rain Gardens 136 Natural Swimming Pools . . . . . . . . . . 138 Pondside Wetlands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139 A Freestanding Wetland Garden . . . . . 141 Filling Your Wetland Garden . . . . . . . . 145 Rain Gardens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145 CHAPTER 9 Pond Critters 152 Fish . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152 Choosing Your Fish . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154 Bringing Fish Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162 Attracting Birds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172 Part 4 Water Feature Maintenance 175 CHAPTER 10 Ecological Balance 176 How Your Pond Works.............. 176 Balancing a New Pond . . . . . . . . . . . . 180 Filtration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182 Preventing Disease Transmission . . . 185 CHAPTER 11 Routine Tasks 186 Season to Season . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187 Troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192 Part 5 Plants, Plants, and More Plants 199 CHAPTER 12 Plant Encyclopedia 200 What’s Your Style? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200 The Role Plants Play . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202 Beauty or Beast? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204 Submerged Plants (Oxygenators) . . . . 206 Floating Plants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208 Water Lilies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210 Lotuses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222 Marginal Plants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225 Plants for the Periphery . . . . . . . . . . . 230 Shrubs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240 Trees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245 About the Technical Editor 248 Glossary 248 Index 250 Credits 255
Agarden is an invitation to a wonderful sensory experience. Colorful flowers, fragrant herbs, and the sound of birds draw us outdoors. A water feature adds a different, unexpected dimension. It reflects the sky and clouds. It may be a bubbling fountain, a cascading waterfall, or the flash of a goldenyellow fish in a pond that excites us. Large or small, liquid assets can enhance the garden. But first, you need a plan. PART 1 A World of Inspiration
Consider Your Lifestyle When professional landscape designers begin a project, they ask about the client’s lifestyle and goals for their property. Consider how you use your outdoor space. Do you spend a lot of time outside enjoying your property? Do you want your pond or fountain to beautify the view from inside the house or to enhance your entryway for the pleasure of your guests? Your budget is also a consideration before you make a selection. When your time outdoors is limited to relaxing on the patio or deck, a pondless waterfall or fountain may be all you want or need. If you enjoy entertaining in your garden, a small water feature softly bubbling in a corner can be relaxing and prompt quiet conversation. A pond provides endless entertainment especially if it contains colorful fish. An informal pond placed near a deck or patio allows you and your guests to admire the fish and unusual plants, as well as birds, dragonflies, and other wildlife that are attracted to water. If you have a patio that looks out over a long, narrow garden, you can make the space look even deeper by installing a long formal pool or placing a pond at the far end to create a focal point. Keep the lines of a more remote water feature clean and bold so that the design can speak from a distance. If you enjoy gardening, a new water feature can be as simple or as demanding as you like. As with any other part of a landscape, a pond offers endless possibilities. You can add plants or rearrange your existing plants. There are many colorful aquatic plants that can sit in or around a pond. There’s the added enticement of adding fish and other creatures like turtles. Or perhaps the pond will be a secondary feature to existing flower beds and borders. For example, one gardener used a backhoe to dig a half-acre pond as the centerpiece of a collection of unusual trees and shrubs. The beautiful colors and shapes are reflected in the water, which can be viewed from his sunroom. Another gardener placed a three-tiered fountain as a focal point off the patio. Because she lives in an area that has very cold winters, the fountain is turned off and covered for the season. Your climate will also help you determine what type of water feature works best. Good planning results in a water feature that requires minimal maintenance and provides enjoyment for years to come. CHAPTER 2 Planning Your Water Feature The hardy water lily’s beauty, above, and the colors and fragrance of some varities, can be the inspiration for creating a lush water garden. They bloom by day and by night, so you can enjoy their pleasure for hours. Including a relaxing, low-maintenance water feature can add value to your home. ater is one of life’s vital elements— it’s no surprise that we find ourselves attracted to it. What better place to enjoy water but in your own garden? A welldesigned landscape with a water feature requires thoughtful consideration and preparation. Careful planning helps prevent first-time mistakes. Adding a water feature to the garden deserves thoughtful placement and installation. Will it be a focal point in your garden? Will it be enjoyed from indoors when you can’t be outside? Will it be lit at night? Determine what feature is right for you—from the style and size to where it is located—before you start. W
Consider Your Lifestyle 25
This beautiful tropical garden contains a decorative bridge over a waterfall that empties into a large pond.
65 Once you’ve chosen a flexible or preformed shell for your pond, installation is next. It marks the end of dreaming and planning and the beginning of years of enjoyment. This section contains instructions to help you through the process. PART 2 Installing Your Pond
CHAPTER 4 Start with a Pond Foundation Aflat site is often the easiest place to build a water feature, especially if this is your first one. The most difficult spot is at the bottom of a slope. In nature, ponds tend to be in low-lying areas, but there are several concerns in a garden situation. Low areas collect runoff that may contain pesticides and other toxins, as well as soil and other organic debris. Low areas tend to collect cold air before the rest of the garden. Depending on where you live, a low spot may be too close to the underground water table. That increases the likelihood that groundwater could bubble up under a liner or heave a pond shell out of the ground. Special Sites Slopes. As previously noted, a hillside can lend itself to some creative possibilities for waterfalls and streams. On some properties, a slope may be the only choice. If that is the case with you, you’ll need to build a retaining wall for the pond. You can do this with soil, using the “cut-and-fill” method. Use subsoil excavated from your pond to build a mound on the downhill side, cover it with topsoil you’ve removed from the area, and landscape it with plants and rocks. You can also build a brick or concrete retaining wall on one or both sides of the pond. A wall on the uphill side can be designed so it’s almost invisible aboveground. It will help prevent that slope from eroding, and its top edge can keep soil and other matter from washing into the A good foundation and careful planning will keep your water feature beautiful for years. Consider all of the aspects of the site. A flat location is the easiest for building a pond, although slopes offer dramatic possibilities. pond. A wall on the downhill side will provide additional support for your liner or shell and the weight of the water it contains, but depending on your slope, it may be visible from below and may obstruct your view of the pond. If you build this wall of stone, you may be able to turn it into an attractive rock garden to complement an informal pond. For a formal pool you can use brick and turn it into a raised bed in which to grow annuals, flowering perennials, or ornamental grasses. If your property has a high water table, your best solution is to plan on a raised or at least a semiraised pond. You may be able to deal with seasonally poor drainage by installing gravel-filled trenches to divert water around the pond and into a dry well. It will be helpful on the uphill side of a slope to catch runoff before it reaches the level of the pond. A more attractive option is a wetland garden on the uphill side of the pond to catch runoff.
A sloped site offers creative possibilities such as incorporating a naturalistic waterfall.
Chapter 9 Pond Critters 166 Keeping Fish Healthy ■ Test water quality regularly. If you have a lot of fish, be particularly vigilant about ammonia and nitrite levels. ■ Be prepared to remove fish quickly. Have an aquarium or other hospital tank available should they display any signs of distress or illness. ■ Be aware of predators. Install protective netting or fencing if you see birds or animals lurking around your pond. ■ Find a reliable expert. Have a contact number handy for a trusted supplier or veterinarian whom you can call for advice. WINTER CARE OF FISH If you’ve made your pond at least 18 inches deep (2 feet deep in cold climates), goldfish and other hardy fish should survive winter there because the water in your pond won’t freeze all the way to the bottom. But it’s also crucial to keep the surface of your pond from freezing solid. If that happens, the normal exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide can no longer occur, and poisonous methane released by any decaying organic matter will be trapped in the water. You can’t just bang a hole in the ice, however, because the shock waves will carry through the water and can injure or kill the fish. An electric pond heater is the most reliable way to keep a hole open in the ice, but you can also use a pan of boiling water. Some northern gardeners erect greenhouses over their ponds to keep them from freezing. (See Winter on page 191 of Chapter 11, for more details and other ideas for protecting and maintaining your pond.) FISH PREDATORS Even if you live in a city, don’t assume that your fishpond is safe from natural predators. In the heart of Washington, D.C., the owner of a rooftop pond has seen blue herons swooping overhead (although she hasn’t caught them landing) and had to have a raccoon removed by animal-control officials. Because effective ways to protect fish from predators can be unsightly, you may have to forgo either finny friends or aesthetics. BIRDS AND BEASTS You can discourage or slow down terrestrial predators such as raccoons with dense plantings of grasses around the pond edge. Don’t fret too much about cats, which love to watch fish but are rarely able to catch them (and hate to risk taking a swim). Retrievers and other water-loving dogs don’t harm fish, but they make themselves a nuisance by knocking over planters and puncturing liners with their sharp nails. Herons. These entertaining birds, which goose-step with backward-jointed knees, are plentiful along the coast as well as inland waterways. The great blue heron can grow 6 feet tall; the green heron and related egret are smaller but equally skilled fishers. Because they walk to the water, rather than swooping down like seagulls, they can be discouraged with fishing line strung around the pond about 6 inches off the ground. Statues of herons may deter them—these birds like to dine alone—but usually not for long. Heron. Although herons are great fun to watch, they need to be kept away from your pond. Trip them up with a “fence” of fishing line.
Fish Predators 167 Belted Kingfisher. This is another great bird to watch—for its spiky punk hairdo, distinctive loud crick call, and ability to plunge after fish in a vertical dive. Kingfishers kill fish by beating them against their perch, tossing them in the air, and swallowing them headfirst. Since you don’t want this happening to your fish, avoid any kind of tall perch located conveniently near your pond. Gulls. Compared to herons, gulls rarely fish in ponds. They’re happier hunting around larger bodies of water or scavenging garbage dumpsters. If diving birds become a problem, the only solution is to suspend a fine net just above the pond. Raccoon. Of all pond predators, raccoons are the most feared. But while they love water, always washing their food fastidiously, they like to enter the water at their own pace and won’t appreciate a sheer drop off the side of a pond. In short, they’re looking for the most graceful entrance possible. Where raccoons are common, design fishponds with steeply vertical sides and no shallow plant ledges. In addition, plant the perimeter thickly with grasses and other dense marginal plants. This type of barrier will put a real dent in their fishing efforts. If problems with raccoons become overwhelming, don’t give up on keeping fish. Instead, call your local animal control agency or your state’s fish and game department for savvy ideas or assistance. Avoid direct contact with raccoons, which can be fierce fighters when cornered. If you see one out during the day, this may mean it has rabies. Kingfisher. Belted Kingfishers go after prey by taking a vertical plunge. Remove any high perch from which they can dive. Gull. Because gulls are divers, defeat them by to installing netting over the pond. This will make them move on to easier foraging. Raccoon. Considered Pond Enemy Number 1, raccoons will often be deterred by a pond with steep sides.
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