"Designing and Creating Water Gardens" by Peter J. May

Designing and Creating Water Gardens by Peter J. May

The only book that tells you how to create a water garden in any situation, in any terrain and in any style, using readily available materials from your local garden store and builders supply merchant.

Peter May has been a gardener since the early 1970s and has been involved landscaping and garden design specialising in creating water gardens since 1981. He therefore knows what you want to know when it comes to building and looking after water gardens. He has seen every type of mistake there is to make in building water gardens, and the consequences and over the years it was patently obvious water gardens are simple and easy to look after if certain parameters are followed during the construction, and basic rules are followed in the right order and the right way.

This book will not dampen your spirits with the prospects of lots of dirt and hard work, but will tell you in a way that inspires and makes you eager to get out there and do it for yourself!

The word create is used in the title because you build the structure for the pond and put in all the right ingredients suitable for the size and situation then with the right weather conditions, the magic happens. A self-sufficient world evolves, growing and developing with the up-and-down merry-go-round of life in a small world. You will feel like you have instigated something quite awesome and it is this thrill of a real water garden that this book will enable you to create and sustain.

Besides that or because of that, water gardens are highly desirable features in today’s gardens. In the past, they were emblems of power, prestige and wealth that said something about the influence and fashion consciousness of the owner. Today they are used to add sound, movement and mood; new colours, new perspectives and strong focal points. They can make even the smallest garden seem bigger; and give bigger gardens new horizons. They give us a new dimension in the choice of plants for our gardens and encourage a diverse range of wildlife into the garden. In short they distinguish a garden.
Fish are very often what draw many people to water gardeningAnd then there are the fish; the other very good reason for wanting a water garden…..

Designing and Creating Water Gardens explains the principles from the very basics. It illustrates the vast potential of designing water into the garden with photographs of a wide range of finished gardens. Practical advice accompanies step-by-step instruction on how to install a choice of water features. This book will empower your imagination and enable you to create pools and ponds, waterfalls, streams, fountains and even the ubiquitous self-contained water features. All the technological accessories that help you maintain control are explained in simple terms. Then you can decide for yourself whether they are appropriate for your style of water garden as you are guided through the vast range of products on the market, many of which you will never need.

From the basic foundations to the ‘icing on the cake’, this book even gives ways of completing the picture with architectural structures such as pavilions, pergolas and bridges. There is also a comprehensive fully illustrated directory of all the desirable and useful plants that are generally available for in-the-water and around the water garden, and it also lists plants you definitely don't want. Once again, there are the fish, and here is advice on how to manage their role in the scheme and how to ensure that they stay healthy in a healthy environment.

Every chapter is more than one good reason to have this book:

It starts with INSPIRATStylish Chealsea Flower Show gardensION, and whilst inspiring you the reader, it takes you on a magical tour through history, pointing out the integral part that water played in every garden style there ever was in the past. Even today in modern gardens from the great international garden shows we still see modern designers making water a central feature in their designs.

Then before you start, there are CONSIDERATIONS. This not only means aspects of design, but it is about considering everything from the larger environment of the garden to theFrom the practical to the innovative but bizarre practicalities of things like power supply and water supply. Starting with the fundamentals of size, location and style of design then adding the extras you want, you are guided through a process in which the water garden almost designs itself.

Building the skeleton in a pond in uneven groundPREPARATION AND INSTALLATION is a chapter that guides you through the building of pools, ponds and bog gardens. All techniques and materials are covered from puddled ponds and even bentonite matting to pre-formed plastic liners. Guidance is given as to the suitability of different materials for different styles, also their drawbacks and shortcomings.

Building techniques are covered in detail, to the extent that even if you never ever mixed a mix of mortar or concrete, after reading the special beginners' ‘boxout’ you can handle anything the professionals tackle. This book empowers you to do anything (water-garden-wise) that Peter May has learnt in 25years as a landscaper. Here you will learn how to build the backbone structure of a raised pool, to any style of edging around the pool; decking, pebble beaches, rockeries and walling are all dealt with.

MOVING WATER FEATURES gives you everything you need to know about waterfall, streams and fountains: size and suitability for the size ofThe subtle construction of a simple looking waterfall pool; suitable pumps; suitable styles, but above all, how to build and install them from the tiddley, florid fountain and the modest pebble fountain to the world class giant rock-scapes of some of the great names in landscaping.

DECORATIVE STRUCTURES FOR THE WATER GARDEN means everything from the humble stepping-stones to the fully functional ornate bridge, also summerhouses, pergolas and arbours. If by the time you have got this far you are brimming with confidence, there Nature provides the best styles of waterfall to copyare hints and tips on building your own from scratch.

PLANTS AND PLANTING is for me one of the most important chapters in that it is the key to creating an ideal water garden with nature in the driving seat; with clear water and a natural balance for the habitat of fish and other wildlife thriving in harmony. It is the chapter that guides you away from ruining everything with the wrong ingredients, but lets you choose your own style of perfection. Deep water plants like lilies, the life sustaining oxygenators, floating plants and plants for the margins, as well as a section for specifically bog plants and moisture loving trees and shrubs, they are all here.

CHOOSING AND KEEPING FISH is important to many people, since it is their prime reason for deciding to have a water garden in the first place. This chapter goes through all the various species and breeds along with their suitability and compatibility. The wild indigenous species of the UK are also covered with advice as to whether they are a wise choice or not. That actual care of the inhabitants very much leads us on to the next chapter.

POND HEALTH depends very much on getting everything in the right proportions to begin with, but eventually growth and evolution continues to a point when we have to take control again.Bridges over and walkways around watergardens are integral with them Sometimes, particularly in hot sunny countries, the water never seems to clear and always looks green and sick. This all a question of balance, and even in the UK in A plant directory can be the key to a manageable water gardensmall water gardens, the balance can seem difficult to maintain. By employing technology to harness a natural process of filtration we can delay the inevitable day of the big clean out, keep more fish and keep the water clear. This is the chapter of add-ons and gizmos. It will guide you through to the right biological filters, U/V clarifiers, pumps and other pieces of equipment that will suite your water garden.

Tips on estimating and formulae that tell you precisely how much of specific materials you will need to get are in the back of the book in APPENDICES AND FORMULAE: invaluable guidance on the volume of soil you will shift; the amount of stone you will need; sand; cement; plants and pebbles. Once again it is all here.

At the end is the best INDEX you can imagine. An index that will pinpoint any mention of any relevant topic to ponds, water gardens and water features. It takes it beyond being a beautiful coffee table style of book, to being an essential manual in Designing and Creating Water Gardens.

Signed copies are available from this site at £19.95 with free postage and packaging.

ISBN 1-86126-667-7, published by Crowood, website: www.crowood.com