Garden Ponds, Fountains & Waterfalls for Your Home E-Book

Editors of Creative Homeowner

• Herausgeber: Creative Homeowner
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Serie: Landscaping
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017

Seitenzahl: 466

Beschreibung

Garden Ponds, Fountains & Waterfalls for Your Home provides essential information on designing and installing all types of home water gardens, from naturalistic to formal, plus fountains, waterfalls, streams, and bog gardens. Readers will learn how to construct each of these structures, as well as how to design bridges and stepping-stones.

Leseprobe

Dedication

In memory of Kathleen Fisher.

Acknowledgments

Many kind people were generous with inspiration and information. Thanks to Al Short and his team at Harmony Ponds and Gardens; landscape designers Jeffrey Minnich, Sarah Boasberg, and Kibbe Turner; water gardeners Scott and Karen Nishioki, Sue Felley at Judith Resnik Elementary School, and Pandora Johns; horticulturist Larry Mellichamp; and for the suppliers, Charles Thomas and his crew at Lilypons, Allyson Handson at Picovs, and Dave Kelly at Aquascape Designs. Thanks to Jim Lawrie for his review.

At Creative Homeowner we’re committed to producing books in an earth-friendly manner and to helping our customers make greener choices.

Manufacturing books in the United States ensures compliance with strict environmental laws and eliminates the need for international freight shipping, a major contributor to global air pollution.

And printing on recycled paper helps minimize our consumption of trees, water, and fossil fuels. Garden Ponds, Fountains & Waterfalls for Your Home was printed on paper made with 10% post-consumer waste. According to the Environmental Paper Network’s Paper Calculator, by using this innovative paper instead of conventional papers we achieved the following environmental benefits:

Trees Saved: 22

Water Saved: 10,131 gallons

Solid Waste Eliminated: 642 pounds

Greenhouse Gas Emissions Eliminated: 2,247 pounds

For more information on our environmental practices, please visit us online at www.creativehomeowner.com/green

Courier Corporation, the manufacturer of this book, owns the Green Edition Trademark.

Safety First

Though all concepts and methods in this book have been reviewed for safety, it is not possible to overstate the importance of using the safest working methods possible. What follows are reminders—do’s and don’ts for yard work and landscaping. They are not substitutes for your own common sense.

    Always use caution, care, and good judgment when following the procedures described in this book.

    Always determine locations of underground utility lines before you dig, and then avoid them by a safe distance. Buried lines may be for gas, electricity, communications, or water. Start research by contacting your local building officials. Also contact local utility companies; they will often send a representative free of charge to help you map their lines. In addition, there are private utility locator firms that may be listed in your Yellow Pages. Note: previous owners may have installed underground drainage, sprinkler, and lighting lines without mapping them.

    Always read and heed the manufacturer’s instructions for using a tool, especially the warnings.

    Always ensure that the electrical setup is safe; be sure that no circuit is overloaded and that all power tools and electrical outlets are properly grounded and protected by a ground-fault circuit interrupter (GFCI). Do not use power tools in wet locations.

    Always wear eye protection when using chemicals, sawing wood, pruning trees and shrubs, using power tools, and striking metal onto metal or concrete.

    Always read labels on chemicals, solvents, and other products; provide ventilation; heed warnings.

    Always wear heavy rubber gloves rated for chemicals, not mere household rubber gloves, when handling toxins.

    Always wear appropriate gloves in situations in which your hands could be injured by rough surfaces, sharp edges, thorns, or poisonous plants.

    Always wear a disposable face mask or a special filtering respirator when creating sawdust or working with toxic gardening substances.

    Always keep your hands and other body parts away from the business ends of blades, cutters, and bits.

    Always obtain approval from local building officials before undertaking construction of permanent structures.

    Never work with power tools when you are tired or under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

    Never carry sharp or pointed tools, such as knives or saws, in your pockets. If you carry such tools, use special-purpose tool scabbards.

Contents

Introduction

Hardiness and Heat Zone Maps

Part 1

Starting with a plan

CHAPTER 1

Looking to the Past 12 for Inspiration

Early Civilizations

Mid-to-Late 1800s

Modern Water Gardens

CHAPTER 2

Plan from the Start

Considering Your Lifestyle

Siting Your Water Feature

Practical Considerations

Size and Styles

CHAPTER 3

Pond Liner and Edging Choices

Liners

Edging

Designing the Pond Configuration

Make a Site Plan

Part 2

Installing your pond

CHAPTER 4

Start with a Pond Foundation

Special Sites

Install a Flexible Liner

Construct a Lined Inground Pond

Planting-Shelf Options

Extra Support for Pond Foundations

Optional Cement Overliner

Installing a Preformed Shell

Construct a Preformed Inground Pond

CHAPTER 5

Moving-Water Features

Design Pointers

Choosing and Buying a Liner

Moving Water

Plumbing Your Moving-Water Feature

Install a Lined Watercourse

Install a Preformed Watercourse

CHAPTER 6

Fountains & Light

So Many Choices

Spray Fountains

Statuary Fountains

Lighting

CHAPTER 7

Bridges & Stones

Wooden Bridges

Stepping-stones

Part 3

wetland gardens

CHAPTER 8

Creating a Wetland

A Pondside Wetland or Bog Garden

A Freestanding Wetland Garden

Filling Your Wetland Garden

CHAPTER 9

Pond Critters

Fish

Choosing Your Fish

Bringing Fish Home

Attracting Birds

Part 4

water-garden maintenance

CHAPTER 10

Ecological Balance

How Your Pond Works

Balancing a New Pond

Filtration

CHAPTER 11

Routine Tasks

Season to Season

Troubleshooting

Part 5

selecting your plants

CHAPTER 12

Plant Encyclopedia

Choosing Plants

Beware of Invasive Plants

Submerged Plants, or Oxygenators

Floating Plants

Water Lilies

Lotuses

Marginal Plants

Plants for the Periphery

Shrubs

Trees

Glossary

Index

Credits

Introduction

Adding a water feature to your yard or garden will reward you with endless hours of delight. If you’re willing to invest the time, Garden Ponds, Fountains & Waterfalls for Your Home can be your guide to a beautiful water garden of your own creation.

Of all the things you could add to your landscape, a water feature has to be the most dramatic. What else could bring you sound, movement, reflections, and the opportunity to attract animals and use plants in entirely new ways? This book has been organized to both inspire you and provide practical, hands-on guidance.

Chapter 1 takes you on a historical tour of water gardening, where you’ll probably discover that your motivation for building a pond or fountain isn’t much different from those of the Moguls or Roman rulers of many hundreds of years ago. You won’t be able to copy the scope of most of these grand designs, but you will realize that you are indeed in very distinguished company. Chapter 2 talks about design considerations: where you will put your pond, how you will shape it, and how you will make it seem an integral part of the rest of your landscape. Thoughtful consideration of these factors, along with detailed knowledge of your soil, sun, wind, and weather, will ensure that your water feature brings you, your family, and visitors delight for many years to come.

A traditional Japanese garden may inspire you to adapt one or two elements and incorporate them into your own design.

Then you move on to the nuts and bolts of installing your new pond. Chapter 3 discusses the things you will need to build your pond and explains how to put pen to paper in planning it. Your pond’s foundation, like that of your home, is the basis for all that will come later, so all of Chapter 4 is devoted to explaining what must be done to install it correctly. Thanks to modern technology that has made flexible liners and preformed shells affordable for everyone, you’ll be surprised at how easy it is to do.

Once you have the foundation in place, you will find numerous options for adding frills. Chapters 5 through 7 describe fountains and lighting, bridges and steppingstones, waterfalls and streams, and how you can add these features to your design.

If you have a naturally wet area in your landscape or if you enjoy collecting and growing unusual plants, you’ll want to spend time reading Chapter 8. This chapter talks about bog gardens, which are often installed adjacent to a pond. This is where you can grow fascinating wetland denizens such as the carnivorous pitcher plants and Venus-flytrap or the terrestrial orchid called ladies-tresses.

Chapter 9 explains factors that affect the quality of your pond’s water, which can mean life or death to your fish and make a difference in the way your water looks or smells. Chapter 10 is about the creatures themselves, from expensive collector koi to predators who might stalk them.

As a rule, water gardening brings pleasure far outweighing the work and expense it entails. Yet you do need to anticipate problems and do some periodic preventive maintenance. Chapter 11 goes over the few seasonal tasks you should carry out to keep your pond and its residents healthy.

Chapter 12 is the heart of the book. Sure, you can have a pond without any plants at all, but for most of us these features are water gardens. So this chapter is an encyclopedia of plants, from underwater oxygenators and water lilies to native wetland plants that look at home near a pond or stream. Choosing and arranging these plants will make your pond new to you every year.

Water gardening has something for everyone. If you’re mechanically inclined, you may want to experiment with various sized pumps and filters. Artists will devote their time to shaping a stream, edged with perennials to bloom throughout the seasons. Nature lovers will plan and plant carefully to attract birds or even raccoons and snakes. Whatever your inclination, this book will help to get you off to a solid start on a fascinating hobby.

There’s no better inspiration than nature. You can create a naturalistic look for your pond using freeform shapes, plantings, and stones.

Hardiness Zone Map

The Hardiness-Zone Map developed by the Agricultural Research Service of the USDA divides the country into 13 zones according to average minimum winter temperatures. Hardiness zones are used to identify regions to which plants are suited based on their cold tolerance, which is what “hardiness” means. Many factors, such as elevation and moisture level, come into play when determining whether a plant is suitable for your region. Local climates may vary from what is shown on this map. Contact your local Cooperative Extension Service for recommendations for your area. Or go to www.planthardiness.ars.usda.gov to find your hardiness zone based on your zip code. Mapping by the PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University.

AHS Heat-Zone Map

The American Horticultural Society Heat-Zone Map divides the United States into 12 zones based on the average annual number of days a region’s temperatures climb above 86°F (30°C), the temperature at which the cellular proteins of plants begin to experience injury. Introduced in 1998, the AHS Heat-Zone Map holds significance, especially for gardeners in southern and transitional zones. Nurseries, growers, and other plant sources will gradually begin listing both cold hardiness and heat tolerance zones for plants, including grass plants. Using the USDA Plant Hardiness map, which can help determine a plant’s cold tolerance, and the AHS Heat-Zone Map, gardeners will be able to safely choose plants that tolerate their region’s lowest and highest temperatures.

Canada’s Plant Hardiness Zone Map

Canada’s Plant Hardiness Zone Map outlines the different zones in Canada where various types of trees, shrubs, and flowers will most likely survive. It is based on the average climatic conditions of each area. The hardiness map is divided into nine major zones: the harshest is 0 and the mildest is 8. Relatively few plants are suited to zone 0. Subzones (e.g., 4a or 4b, 5a or 5b) are also noted in the map legend. These subzones are most familiar to Canadian gardeners. Some significant local factors, such as micro-topography, amount of shelter, and subtle local variations in snow cover, are too small to be captured on the map. Year-to-year variations in weather and gardening techniques can also have a significant impact on plant survival in any particular location.

PART 1

Starting with a Plan

What inspired you to want to create a water garden or pond? Was it a feature you saw and admired at a friend’s home, or did your inspiration come from something on a grander scale—a fountain, perhaps, in a public park or a photograph of a historic water garden? Whatever it was, enhancing your garden with a water feature will bring you many hours of delight. But first, you have to have a plan.

CHAPTER 1

Looking to the Past for Inspiration

From the beginning, human beings have venerated water. We know it as the sustainer of life and sense it as the source of our origins. Yet because it also holds fear for us, we need to control it. The earliest recorded water gardens reflect all of these things: the practical need for water to drink and to cleanse oneself, the necessity to irrigate life-sustaining crops, the desire for a sense of coolness and for comforting sounds in harsh surroundings, a need to control nature, and in many religious traditions, connection with the Creator.

This is where water gardens began—in the Cradle of Civilization, located between the Taurus Moutains of eastern Asia Minor and the Persian Gulf.

Fountains Abbey, in North Yorkshire, England, is the remains of a medieval Cistercian monastery.

Early Civilizations

The Cradle of Civilization was the birthplace of water gardens. The inhabitants of Mesopotamia, which extended from the mountains of eastern Asia Minor to the Persian Gulf, owed their success to their ability to control the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. That they succeeded in this is clear, although evidence of ornamental water gardens from this period is limited to a few artifacts—a carved water basin from 3000 bc and a stone fountain from about 1,000 years later.

Ancient Egyptians drew water from the Nile with a simple device called a shadoof.

The Assyrians, who inhabited the southern half of the Tigris and east, built vast hunting parks, and lifted water at least three stories high to plant the temple towers called ziggurats, the most famous of which were the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.

The Egyptians were able to harness the Nile with a device called the “shadoof,” consisting of a horizontal pole attached to a pivot, with a bucket on one end and a counterweight on the other. (Employing elementary physics, it is still used today.) Carvings and relics in their tombs show us that they had elaborate pleasure gardens, where these desert dwellers could escape the heat among water birds and fish.

In a tomb built in Thebes around 1400 bc, archeologists found plans for a garden entered by canal and divided into four main areas with a rectangular pond in each.

This cross-shaped motif was often centered with plantings of lotus. Egyptians revered the lotus as both medicine and a religious symbol. Another early water garden plant was the bulrush, famous for hiding the abandoned infant Moses, but also used to fashion ropes, mats, sails, and even to construct rafts solid enough to transport stone obelisks.

In the middle of the eighteenth century, the Landscape Movement in Great Britain inspired a naturalistic style that emphasized water rather than heavy planting. Here, the reflection of the house in the water enhances the overall landscape.

PERSIA

The citizens of Persia (now Iran) also divided their gardens with cross-shaped channels, a form they called “chahar-bagh.” Cyrus the Great, in the sixth century bc, fed his garden through underground channels called “qanats,” made by drilling a shaft to the source of water, then sloping a channel to its destination. About a century later a descendant, Cyrus the Younger, is credited with coining the word “paradise” (although certainly not the concept) for a garden. He named his garden “Pairidaeza,” from the Persian words meaning “around” and “wall.” Persians loved their gardens so much that they wove their designs into rugs in order to enjoy them in winter.

When Islamic Arabs invaded Persia in 637 AD, it wasn’t the end of this garden tradition, but in fact, launched its spread throughout the Islamic world for at least a millennium. These road-and-dust-weary nomads were enchanted by the walled gardens and further inspired by the Koran, in which Mohammed described paradise as a garden complete with fountains.

Moorish water garden. The Generalife is a sensual garden near Granada and was a summer residence for Spanish rulers.

The Generalife. In the thirteenth century, the Moors—descendents of Arabs and Berbers who invaded Spain in 711 AD—built two exemplary gardens still in existence in the hills overlooking Granada. The Palacio de Generalife was the summer residence of their rulers. This garden is romantic, intimate, and sensual. Particularly so is Court of the Canal, a long narrow space with three-level pavilions at each end. A pool that runs its length is flanked by lush plantings. Water jets arcing over it and bubbling basins shaped like lotus pads provide the water music.

Alhambra. Gardens of the more poetic-sounding Alhambra (Red Castle), on the other hand, are massive and expansive as befits a fortress, which it was. In the Court of the Lions, a dozen carved King of Beasts spout water into a hexagonal pool and hold aloft a 12-sided fountain basin. Around the edges of this court, alabaster columns support ornate arcades. In comparison, the Court of the Myrtles has a single rectangular pond with closely pruned myrtle hedges.

Some 7,000 miles away in Mogul India (captured by Asian warlords such as Tamberlane and Ghenghis Khan in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries), gardens reflected the Persian influence in their canals and geometric shapes. They harnessed rivers to fuel water features, notably the chute called the “chadar.”

In the late 1500s, hundreds of Mogul gardens were built at the foot of the Himalayas in Kashmir, where water flowed down the mountains and into Lake Dal. One of those surviving is Shalamar Bagh, as famous for its name, meaning “place of love,” as for its series of pavilions surrounded by water. The nearby Nishat Bagh is made breathtaking by a central canal descending over 12 levels, each linked by a broad chadar. Over these falls, water plays over indentations in the rocks, which are angled to capture sunlight.

Taj Mahal. The Moguls are also famous for their tomb gardens, particularly The Taj Mahal, built between 1632 and 1654 by the last Mogul emperor, Shah Jahan, in memory of his favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal. He broke tradition by positioning the tomb at one end of the cross-shaped canal, rather than in the center, so that the entire structure is reflected.

The Taj Mahal, the most famous of the Indian tomb gardens, honors the memory of a Mogul emperor’s favorite wife.

ASIA

The earliest Chinese gardens, like those of the Assyrians, were sprawling hunting parks. Their emperors, beginning at least with the Han dynasty (206 to 220 AD), built lakes covering hundreds of acres as centers for boating and socializing. But even though most of these lakes were artificial—and in winter, sometimes the flowers were, too—nature was the ideal in these as well as in small private gardens. Many of the latter have been reconstructed in Suzhou, sometimes called the “Venice of the East,” where canals and enclosed courtyard gardens lap at the foundations of homes and other buildings.

Confucius set the tone for Chinese gardens in 500 BC, with the axiom that “the wise find joy in water, the benevolent find joy in mountains.” These two elements—the water representing the female, or yin, and rocks the male, or yang—have been central to Asian gardens ever since. Just as feng shui is the art of creating interior spaces with positive energy, the goal of shanshui (the word for landscaping that means mountains and water) is to bring energy to gardens.

Western gardeners often remark that plants play a secondary role in Asian gardens, although this is less true than it was for the Islamic or Italian Renaissance gardens, where the majority of plantings were evergreens. In China, the favored plants were the three friends of water (plum, bamboo, and pine), and peonies, chrysanthemums, and of course, lotuses. Lotuses were especially sacred to Buddhists, who believed that Buddha was born in the heart of a lotus.

In 612 AD a missionary from Japan described the Chinese imperial gardens to his own empress, who adapted the lake-and-island motif for her gardens. Although the basics of Asian gardening have changed little over the centuries, as they have in the West, there are some distinct periods of influence that changed garden design:

■ The Heian period (795–1195), which further emphasized reproducing natural beauty in small landscapes, with specific suggestions for the diversion of streams and placement of rocks. Ponds were to be shaped like a crane in flight and islands like a turtle, both symbolizing eternity.

■ Momoyamam (1573–1603), when the tea garden came to the forefront, with the introduction of water basins for that ceremony and stepping-stones across lakes.

■ Edo (1603–1867). Edo was the name for Tokyo until 1869, and this burgeoning city saw the development of wealthy estates with attendant large lakes.

Some Japanese gardens are stroll gardens, intended to take visitors on a contemplative journey, while true contemplation gardens are to be viewed from indoors or a terrace. When bringing water to a garden is impossible, the Japanese suggest water with the placement of rounded stones.

Egyptians and Chinese revered the lotus flower, here depicted by Yum Shou-Ping (1633–1690) in Album of Flowers.

Garden design is an artform that has existed in Japan for centuries. This traditional design is located in Kyoto.

ANCIENT GREECE, ROME, AND THE RENAISSANCE

The ancient Greeks did not create artificial water gardens around their homes, but rather, revered natural areas endowed with springs, which they believed were homes of gods and nymphs. Later, these were embellished with statuary, and in time evolved into elaborate nymphaea, or water theaters.

Romans. The Romans were considerably more ambitious. Pliny the Younger (62 to 113 AD) left detailed records of his hillside garden, where a pool with a tall water jet alternately filled and emptied and water gushed from a stone cistern under a semicircular marble bench into a marble basin below. Pliny’s villa also featured a hippodrome—a structure for horse races—as did that of Hadrian, emperor from 117 to 138 AD. Hadrian’s, at Tivoli, contained a central canal longer than 5 football fields. His circular Marine Theater contained a pool with an island, on which stood a pavilion large enough to have its own garden and several rooms. Surviving still is the Canopus, a curving colonnaded canal in an excavated valley. That more modest private gardens did exist we know courtesy of Mount Vesuvius’ eruption in 79 AD. It preserved for all time the city of Pompeii, where small open spaces, surrounded by colonnades, often contained basins with fountains. It was during the Renaissance in the sixteenth century that Italy and then France developed the ornate classical-style water gardens and fountains.

The Greeks believed springs were home to gods and embellished them as elaborate water theaters.

Italian Renaissance. Many Italian Renaissance water features evoked scholarly subjects. There were the massive stone fountains carved by great artists of the time such as Andrea del Verrocchio (Boy with a Dolphin), frequently depicting goddesses such as Venus or January shivering in the cold. But these artisans had an equally playful side. They devised grottos to frighten visitors, whimsical beings animated by water (automata) to amaze them, and water games (giochi d’acqua) to play tricks on them.

Tivoli. Considered the ultimate example of this creativity is the Villa d’Este at Tivoli. Designed by Pirro Ligorio for the Cardinal Ippolito d’Este, it was sited at the top of a steep slope with views to Rome and the Sabine Hills. The fountains are powered by diverting water—over 300 gallons a second—from a nearby river. Its most famous feature is the Terrace of One Hundred Fountains, where terraces hold three rows of spouts punctuated with carvings of eagles and obelisks.

The towering geysers of its Organ Fountain are indeed reminiscent of a mighty organ’s pipes, but in fact the fountain was named for its sound, as were the Owl and Dragon fountains. Elsewhere, stair rails are also water chutes, and water spurts from the breasts of a sphinxlike creature.

Villa Lante. At the Villa Lante, the sides of a narrow canal called a catena d’acqua are scrolled to look like a chain. While the more reverential Muslims raised the sides of water channels as an invitation to sit and contemplate the heavens, here architect Giacomo Vignola built a long table with a trough in the center with more earthly intent—cooling wine.

Grottoes. These water features had their origins in the nymphaea of ancient Greece. In the classical world, they evolved into ornate terraces or rooms with statues, columns, and balustrades. The grotto, on the other hand, retained a pretense of being a rough-hewn cave while becoming ever more elaborate and fanciful. Like the Haunted House at an amusement park, grottoes combined bits of lore with special effects, with the same results—squeals and nervous laughter. Some went for glitter, with crystal stalactites and high ceilings encrusted with semiprecious stones and imported seashells. One that Bernardo Buontalenti created for the Medicis at Boboli featured a sculpture of slaves by Michelangelo and was lit by a crystal fish bowl inserted in its roof.

At the Villa Pratolino, a Medici garden that no longer exists, he gave free reign to his playful side, in some cases combining automation with classical figures such as the Apennine (January), pressing his hand on the head of a sea creature to squeeze water from its mouth. A washerwoman appeared to wring water from a marble cloth. Guests who weren’t soaked by squirting benches were drenched by jets on staircases. Water-activated whistles imitated numerous bird species.

On a purely grand scale were the baroque water theaters, most notably the one built at Villa Aldobrandini for Pope Clement VIII. Created as a semicircular amphitheater behind the villa, its balustraded wall is punctuated with huge niches inhabited by statues. In the central cove, Atlas stands atop a hill of stones hoisting on his shoulders a globe that releases a curtain of water. But the show continues above him, where a steep water staircase, flanked by two spiral-dominated pillars, is cut into the wooded hillside.

The most famous feature of this Tivoli garden is the Terrace of One Hundred Fountains, with three rows of water spouts.

This scroll-sided canal, the Catena d’Acqua (chain of water), was designed for Cardinal Giovanni Francesco.

FRANCE

As the Italian influence flowed to France, its style was first copied and then adapted, with the baroque flourishes and aquatic playfulness displaced by emphasis on tying architecture to the formal landscape on a sweeping scale. In many cases, these grand gardens were extensions of the moat-surrounded French chateau. Because the landscape sites were often much flatter than in Italy, cascades gave way to reflecting pools and parterres, gardens with paths between features. Italian Renaissance style moved most literally across international lines via the Francinis. One of them, Thomas, had been at Pratolino before he and two brothers came to France to work for King Henry IV (whose wife was Marie de Medici) in the 1590s. (Thomas’s sons would eventually work for Louis XIV at Versailles.)

At Saint-Germain-en-Laye, the Francinis filled the royal garden with fountains, grottoes, and automata. But it was the garden of Cardinal Richilieu at Rueil, begun in 1610, where the brothers made their biggest splash (so to speak). Bringing water a mile and a quarter by aqueduct, they powered among other things an immense cascade and two grottoes. In one grotto, satyrs and nymphs spouted water from their genitals, and visitors could manipulate a water spout to form flowers, umbrellas, stars, and other shapes.

Temple of Venus. Le Notre used water to bring life to the Temple of Venus and the sprawling landscape of Versailles in France.

Seventeenth-Century France. Another hallmark of this period was converting shallow muddy areas into lakes or canals by giving them a new artificial edge. At the royal gardens at Fontainebleu southeast of Paris, for instance, a marsh was shaped into a triangular lake. The chateau was further surrounded by moats on other sides. Later, Thomas Francini’s brother Alexandre would add his famous Tiber fountain. But it was Andre Le Notre who, after putting the finishing touches on Fountainebleu, created the three gardens considered to be exemplary of seventeenth-century France: Chantilly, Vaux-le-Vicomte, and Versailles.

Chantilly. A relatively small chateau, Chantilly was surrounded by large moats but positioned so that Le Notre chose to open vistas in two directions. Andre Le Notre edged an existing river to form the Grand Canal more than 100 yards across and extending a mile before turning a half mile in a second direction. Chantilly also is characterized by a water parterre, long vistas, and a series of rectangular, round, and oval reflecting basins. The chateau there was destroyed during the Revolution 200 years after its constuction, but has been rebuilt.

Vaux-le-Vicomte. Owned by Louis XIV’s finance minister, Vaux-le-Vicomte is an example of the moated chateau. The garden, surrounded by woods, descends slowly past an immense parterre of swirling greenery. The main canal, some 1,100 yards long, is concealed from visitors by a terrace, but far in the distance they can see a grotto with seven immense arched niches, topped by a balustraded terrace, then a hillside sweeping up toward a statue of Hercules. Between the house and main canal is the Grand Miroir d’Eau, a square pool that reflects the entire water-surrounded chateau. The effect has been compared to that of the Taj Mahal, which was completed two years before Le Notre began work here. A buttressed cascade tumbles down from the platform on which the chateau seems to float, but there are few fountains. Instead, this garden is famous for the exquisite proportions and perfect relationship of its elements.

Peterhof. At the palace of Russia’s Peter the Great in Peterhof, a canal flows to the sea between jets of water.

Versailles. Of course, Versailles is the most famous of the three, possibly linked more in the minds of non-gardeners with the Treaty ending World War I, but for gardeners symbolizing the ultimate in (depending on their tastes) elegance or ostentaciousness. While the major design of the garden was carried out in the mid-1660s, both structure and landscape saw expansion over several decades under the Sun King, Louis XIV.

Individual features may sound like echoes of other Le Notre designs—a cross-shaped canal (5,900 by 4,920 feet), a water parterre, numerous reflecting basins—but what sets it apart are both the sprawling site and the skillful way he used water to make it vibrant, rather than an outdoor museum. Like many Renaissance gardens, its sculpture focused on a classical theme, in this case Apollo the sun god. In one of Versailles’s most photographed images, Apollo rises from a pool on his horse-drawn chariot. In the water parterre are two pools that reflect the palace façade; beyond the vast orange grove is a lake 765 yards long. On cross axes with the grand canal are bosquets—groves of trees—each framing a fountain that continues the Apollo legend. Unlike Chantilly, water resources were not up to the task, and it was a constant struggle to pressurize the 1,400 water jets.

The Sun King’s grandson Philip V was more fortunate in this regard when, as King of Spain, he tried to copy Versailles at La Granja, where two reservoirs collected water from surrounding mountains. That garden in turn inspired the Palazzo Reale near Naples, the home of Philip’s son Charles III and site of what is considered the grandest of all cascades, stretching almost two miles up a hillside and fed by an aqueduct almost 25 miles long.

Peterhof. In Russia, a Le Notre pupil orchestrated the construction of an aqueduct about half that long to supply Peterhof for Peter the Great. Here, a double cascade flows down a water stair from the palace’s balustraded terrace into a semicircular basin and through a canal to the sea. On each side of the canal are small circular basins with single jets and bosquets with their own water features. The Grand Cascade has 64 different fountains and over 200 statues, bas-reliefs, and other decorations. Behind it, The Grotto contains the pipes that feed it.

Neptune fountain in Versailles. The fountain represents Neptune, the ancient god of seas and oceans.

ENGLAND

Elsewhere in Europe, gardens were relatively austere. The Dutch and Germans preferred formal canals, jets rather than fountains, and relatively little sculpture. An example is Herrenhausen in Germany, begun in 1680, where water adds movement to rectangular patterns of tall trees and hedges.

Chatsworth. A notable exception to this restraint is Chatsworth, developed over two centuries beginning with the first Duke of Glouchester in the late seventeenth century. From a domed “cascade” house built by baroque architect Thomas Archer, a 24-foot-wide water stair tumbles down a hill toward the house. A pupil of Le Notre designed other waterworks. In the eighteenth century, the grounds would take a step toward the future with the work of Capability Brown, who altered the course of the nearby Derwent River to give the home a more picturesque approach.

Beginning in 1826, under the sixth Duke of Devonshire, head gardener Joseph Paxton attempted to link artifice and nature, shaping rocky cascades and woodland water features. The Duke, wanting to impress Russiar’s Czar Nicholas I on a planned visit, had Paxton build the single-jet Emperor Fountain. Powered by gravity from a lake 381 feet higher, it was then the tallest jet in the world at 290 feet. (The czar became ill and never saw it.) Paxton also designed the famed Crystal Palace, built to house the temperate world’s first giant waterlily, Victoria amizonica, with pads more than six feet across.

Landscape Movement. Beginning with the first half of the eighteenth century, the Landscape Movement led a trend away from enclosed outdoor rooms and toward gardens that linked architecture to the world beyond. As in Asia, nature was the model to emulate. Fountains and jets were considered gauche. “Only the vulgar citizen...squirts up his rivulets in jettaux,” wrote one critic. Instead, designers created waterfalls, bubbling streams, rocky ravines, or rills—narrow channels that wound among trees or hillocks. By 1819, even the ingenious design at Villa Pratolino in Italy would be replaced by an English-style garden. Somewhat ironically, those who espoused the natural landscape often altered both wetlands and historic gardens in ways that would be unthinkable or even illegal today.

Blenheim Palace. This French-influenced water parterre was built for the Duke of Marlborough at Blenheim, his Oxfordshire, England, estate, in the 1920s.

Monet’s Garden. The artist Monet broke from tradition by damming a stream to create his romantic and heavily planted pond.

Mid-to-Late 1800s

By the mid-1800s, there were fewer grand private estates where landscape architects could move even miniature mountains or streams. Public parks became a more frequent subject for water-garden designers. Joseph Paxton’s design for Birkenhead Park near Liverpool, with two labyrinthine lakes and an island, inspired American Frederick Law Olmsted’s work in New York’s Central Park, Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, and Boston’s Back Bay.

Monet’s Garden. In the 1890s, artist Claude Monet made a radical move at Giverny by damming a stream to create his famous pond. Divorced from any reference to the surrounding architecture, it was lushly and sensuously planted, inspiring most of his late work—and many romantically inclined gardeners today. In the early twentieth century, architect Edwin Lutyens and plantswoman Gertrude Jekyll were a famous pair, billed as collaborators but often disagreeing about whether structure or plantings should get top billing. One of Lutyens’s favorite water features was the dipping well: an arched alcove where a basin was fed by a spout. Adapted from Renaissance designs, it nevertheless fit beautifully in small landscapes.

Longwood Gardens. The fountain garden is a famous feature of this Pennsylvania estate built by Pierre du Pont in the early 1900s.

Jekyll, known for her lavish perennial borders and use of flower color, recommended restraint in the number of species planted adjacent to a pond. She recommended planting the garden leading away from the pond to segue into natural areas beyond with spring wildflowers, then larger perennials and shrubs leading toward water-loving trees.

Modern Water Gardens

We can thank modern technology for making water gardens available to anyone with a shovel and an electrical supply, rather than just to royalty and others who could afford teams of engineers, architects, and artisans.

In Victorian times, the steam pump brought water to some gardens, but even then, most relied on gravity. When soil wouldn’t hold water, it had to be “puddled” by stomping straw into clay. The first rubber liners came along in the late nineteenth century, and have steadily become both more durable and less expensive, as have pumps and filters.

Modern Perspective. What hasn’t changed much are our motivations for creating water gardens. More imperative for many of us now, perhaps, is the recognition that our natural environment is shrinking.

Seattle Center. The Dandelion Fountain, at Seattle Center, an entertainment complex, exemplifies modern public water features.

CHAPTER 2

Plan from the Start

What inspired you to create a water garden? In this chapter, you’ll find other questions to ask yourself along with some possible answers. Your own answers will help you to plan your project. Planning will help prevent first-time mistakes and ensure that your water feature will bring you pleasure, not problems. Good soil is essential for your plants to grow properly. For a garden to flourish with healthy plants that are strong enough to resist pests and diseases, you must first invest in improving the soil. Unless your property drains sufficiently so that rainwater doesn’t cause flooding or erosion, you may need to improve the drainage.

Considering Your Lifestyle

When professional landscape designers begin a project, they ask about your lifestyle and goals. What do you want to do in your garden? Do you spend a lot of time outside the house enjoying your property, or is your yard more of a backdrop for your house? Do you want your pond to beautify the view from inside the house or to dress up your entryway for the pleasure of your guests?

If your time outside is limited to sitting on the patio reading the newspaper or discussing the day’s events with your spouse, a small container garden or independent fountain may be all you need or want to deal with.

Entertainment. If a patio or deck is the focus of your outdoor life and entertainment is your game, water gardens offer great potential as both mood setters and conversation pieces. A small water feature softly bubbling in a corner may be relaxing and stimulate quiet conversation, while a big splashy one may heighten excitement and joviality. Place a raised pond along one side of a deck or even in the middle of it, and give the pond a wide edge so that you and your friends can sit and watch the fish or admire the plants unique to a water garden. If you have a patio that looks out over a long, narrow garden, you can make the space look even deeper if you install a long formal pool or place 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 have young children, you may want a pond where they can explore nature for hours. Even shallow ponds pose a safety hazard for toddlers, however. Safer alternatives include a small fountain burbling in a shallow circle of pebbles or a waterfall that empties into a shallow stream.

Landscaping. If you enjoy puttering in your garden, you can allow a water feature to be as demanding as you like. As with any other part of your landscape, a pond offers endless possibilities for adding plants or rearranging those you already have, plus the added enticement of fish and other pond animals. Or you may make your pond secondary to all of your existing plants. 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 of which are now reflected in the view from his sunroom window.

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.

Alongside a pond is a peaceful place to relax. You can see the reflection of the sky in this lily pond, opposite.

Siting Your Water Feature

Even on the smallest property, you may discover several spots for a water feature. In selecting the site, consider where the water feature will give the most pleasure while still being practical. You also need to make sure the water garden will look as though it belongs where it is, a task that involves both siting and additional landscaping.

AESTHETIC CONSIDERATIONS

Your view of the pond will greatly determine how much you enjoy it. Ideally, you want to be able to watch it change throughout the seasons from as many vantage points as possible. From indoors, you can enjoy your pond even in inclement weather: the reflection of scudding clouds, the splash of raindrops, the formation of ice. If your region has long winters or if you spend relatively little time outdoors, think about where you might be able to see the pond from one or more windows.

Before you dig, make sure you’ll be able to see the water feature from your intended viewing location. For example, if you want to view the pond outside a breakfast nook, make sure you’ll be able to see it when sitting down. When siting the pond, look for something you can use as a mock pond, such as blue plastic drop cloths or some old sheets, and lay the material in various places in your garden to experiment with positioning and size.

If you have a relatively large garden, you may want to make the water feature a pleasant destination or even a surprise for someone who is walking through the landscape to admire other plantings, or is sauntering toward a gate or a dock.

All children love being around water. A shallow, natural-style pond can be both educational and safe.

If you position your pond where you can glimpse it through a window, you’ll multiply the hours you can enjoy it.

HIDDEN WATER FEATURE

You can employ a landscape-design trick known as evoking a sense of mystery. Instead of putting the pond in full view, hide it so that just a teasing glimpse beckons and invites strollers to investigate. Between the path and the pond, plant tall grasses or a hedge of lacy conifers—or erect a bamboo screen or vine-covered trellis—allowing just a shimmer of water to hint at what lies beyond.

A completely hidden water feature offers other advantages. You can still create a sense of mystery by beckoning a viewer toward a camouflaged pond with a curving path. Such a concealed pond can be a welcome retreat where you can be alone with your thoughts, enjoy the sights and sounds of nature, and forget the chores that await you in the study or laundry room for a while.

To make this area even more of an outdoor “room,” add decking (or a flagstone or gravel floor), a dining table, and lighting so that you can enjoy it at night. Total enclosure of a water feature is especially appealing if you are surrounded on all sides by sights and sounds that you want to block out: heavy traffic, nearby neighbors, or a less-than-beautiful toolshed, for example.

Make sure that the plants you choose are suited to the amount of sunlight they will receive in a particular spot.

This beautiful tropical garden contains a decorative bridge over a waterfall that empties into a large pond.

Reflections. In considering views from your pond, remember that you will want to look not only across it but also into it. What will be reflected in the pond, and how will those reflections change throughout the day and throughout the seasons? Can you capture sunrises or sunsets? The full moon in June? What about azaleas in spring or maple leaves in autumn? Some experts suggest placing a large mirror on the prospective pond site to give you some idea of how water might reflect light and color. If you’re a photographer, you know it’s easier to see the image well if you keep the sun behind you, and this is true of ponds as well. If you’re staring straight across at the sun, all you’ll see is glare.

Existing Features. Another important aesthetic consideration when choosing a site is how easily the water feature can be integrated into the existing landscape. Determine which existing yard features will complement the pond and which will detract from it. Before deciding on a site, examine the views from all angles. For example, siting the pond in one area of the yard may mean that you would need to remove one or more large trees or shrubs to allow you to see the pond from the house. Or you may find eyesores such as an old shed that will need to be razed or a bare house wall that should be disguised with vines.

BORROW VIEWS

When picking a spot for your pond, see whether there are any views worth “borrowing” for your design. Borrowing a pleasing but more distant view is like adding a window to your garden room. It makes a small enclosure seem larger without sacrificing privacy. Decide which elements of the wider world to allow into your cozy spot. Consider the potential view from each side of the pond to see what pleasant vista you could incorporate—the corner of a neighbor’s lot with a perennial bed or expanse of green lawn, or a view back toward your own house where you have plantings you enjoy. A hedge of just the right height can capture the top of a church steeple or tall trees while blocking out less-attractive lower views. If there is a nice view from only one side of the pond, draw attention to it with a small area of stone, brick, or wood decking. A bench or a lantern will suggest a place of welcome. It doesn’t need to be functional; the bench can be a rustic child-size seat, and the lantern can be stone or a battered antique.

Concealing your pond on one or more sides can evoke an exciting sense of mystery.

A bench or other seating sends a visual message that “this is a nice place to be.” Place it to capture the best view across your pond.

If you have decided on a particular size for your pond, you’ll need to take that into consideration when choosing the site. For example, a small pond can get lost next to an immense deck. A large pond stuffed into a small side yard may look out of proportion.

For a small pond, a little shade reduces algae and evaporation, and keeps visitors cool.

Factor in reflections when siting your pond. Water lets you double your visual enjoyment of the landscape’s existing features such as trees and rocks.

Many ponds look like a hole in the ground with a necklace of stones, and gardeners don’t solve the problem by adding a starched collar of plants. Ponds look more natural anchored to an existing feature such as a large boulder or a small specimen tree or tucked into the curve of a perennial or shrub border.

If you don’t have such an existing feature, you may need to create one. Or you can connect the pond to the rest of the garden by echoing other elements in the landscape. Incorporate bricks in the pond’s design to complement a brick house, a deck surround to mimic the deck on the house, a shape similar to that of the planting beds, or plants of the same species (or shape) as planted elsewhere.

Paths. Paths are another way to tie your pond to the rest of your landscape and to your home. (See the sidebar “Pond Surrounds and Paths,” on page 43, for more information.)

Practical Considerations

Beauty isn’t all you need to think about in choosing a place for your pond. Climate, existing structures and trees, and the general lay of the land can all determine whether your pond is heaven or a headache.

Sun and Shade. If you want flowering plants to be an important part of your water garden, you need to place the pond where it will get at least six hours of sunlight a day. Water lilies in particular don’t bloom well with less sun (although there are a few varieties that will perform in partial shade).

There is a downside to too much sun, however. Water will evaporate quickly from a pond in full sun in hot climates. Sun encourages algae and, if the pond is small, can heat the water too much for fish. (See “Controlling Algae,” on page 177, for some helpful tips.) For this reason, small water features—and especially tub gardens—need shadier sites. For larger ponds, provide shade with floating plants or situate small trees to give dappled shade across at least part of the pond’s surface. Use rocks to create overhangs where fish can cool off, as well as hide from predators. Remember that nature creates inviting pools even in the heart of heavily shaded woodlands, and you can, too, by choosing appropriate plants.

If you’ve only recently moved to your property, keep records through each season the first year on how much sun different parts of the yard receive. Use this information to judge whether a site will meet the needs for your water feature.

Wind. Ponds should have some degree of protection from wind, which like sun will hasten the rate of evaporation. Wind can also blow leaves and other debris into your pond, spoil the grace of fountains, and knock over tall plants in containers. If possible, choose a sheltered site, one protected from wind by a hill, woods, building, or fence. If your yard is windy and has no sheltered spot, you’ll need to create some type of a windbreak. Surprisingly, a barrier that lets some wind through is more effective than a solid windbreak such as a close-board fence, which allows wind to blow across its top and resume full force a few feet beyond it. Depending on the style of your pond, you can create an effective windbreak by installing an open-board fence, a screen of native evergreens, or an attractive flowering hedge.

If you decide to use trees to create shade or a windbreak, select and site them carefully. For example, Leyland cypress (x Cupressocyparis leylandii) is often recommended as a fast-growing screen, but with a growth rate of 3 feet a year and a mature height of 65 feet, it frequently outgrows its welcome. Don’t be overeager to remove existing trees. But when adding any new trees near your pond, choose species that will stay small, and avoid willows and other species with thirsty roots that can damage your pond’s liner.

Trees can add to your cleanup chores by dropping twigs, berries, nuts, and leaves into the pond, where this debris may decompose and change the water ‘s chemistry. Some plants that otherwise make attractive windbreaks—such as yews, hollies, rhododendrons, and mountain laurels—have toxic leaves that can harm fish if allowed to accumulate. Pine needles contain tannins that can turn water brown and sicken fish. A willow’s thirsty roots can punch through pond liners that have even minute leaks.

COMPLYING WITH LOCAL REGULATIONS

Make sure your plans comply with local building codes. Depending on where you live, regulations may deem a pond beyond a certain depth a safety hazard and, just as they do with swimming pools, require that you fence it. Fencing may be required for ponds as shallow as 2 feet. Most zoning boards consider a pond a structure, and as such there may also be rules pertaining to its placement and size.

If you intend to redesign a natural water feature, such as a pond or stream, you would be altering a wetland. In that case, find out if you need to apply for a permit, usually with your local conservation commission, department of natural resources, or other environmental review agency. But keep in mind, this process usually involves preparing a complex and legally demanding environmental impact statement.

This pond’s location, offers a perfect view and just the right amount of sun and shade.

Make sure that the plants you choose are suited to the amount of sunlight they will receive in that particular spot.

Microclimates

Wind and trees are just two of the factors that can create what are called “microclimates” in your garden. Your house also creates microclimates—cool and shady on the north, warm and sunny on the south, with gentle morning sun on the east, and hotter afternoon sun on the west. The same is true for outbuildings, fences, or a solid line of trees or shrubs.

A large paved area, such as a driveway or a patio, may create a hot spot. This can mean faster evaporation from a nearby pond and require more frequent watering of plants. The bottom of a slope is often a frost pocket, several degrees cooler than the top, so your pond and plants will freeze earlier and thaw later there.

If summers are short, you can extend your water-gardening season by looking for sites on your property that get the greatest sun exposure. If summers are long and hot, you can reduce evaporation and protect fish and plants by giving the water some protection from the sun at midday or in the afternoon.

Many factors have an impact on your pond’s water, plants, and fish. Study your property’s little idiosyncrasies to maximize success.

Slopes and Runoff. Slopes create an array of possibilities as well as challenges for water gardeners. A steep slope lends itself easily to waterfalls and natural-looking rock terraces. A gentle slope presents an opportunity to create a stream. Even though nature creates ponds at the bottoms of slopes, this can be the worst place for an artificial pond. Runoff from a slope can wash dirt and debris into the pond, as well as pollutants such as lawn chemicals. Even if you don’t use fertilizers or toxins in your garden, neighbors uphill may.