Water Gardens: How to Design, Plant, and Maintain a Home Water Garden - Hardcover

Jacqueline Heriteau; Charles B. Thomas

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0395656338 ISBN 13: 9780395656334

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1994

Synopsis

All over North America, from Alaska to Florida, gardeners are discovering the magic of water in the landscape - the gentle sounds; the reflections of trees and clouds; the butterflies, birds, and dragonflies that water attracts; and the exotic plants that float on its surface.
With new pond liner materials and aquatic plants that thrive in an eighteen-inch-diameter container, even the tiniest garden can be home to a pool, a fountain, or a pond. As homeowners discover the possibilities and practicalities of installing a water garden, hybridizers are introducing water plants that can survive in every climate zone. Today there is no excuse not to give yourself over to the pleasures of a water garden.
Everything you need to know to create your own water garden is in this book. Part One covers site planning, containers, pumps, filters, pond installation, and maintenance. Part Two is an illustrated encyclopedia of 200 of the best plants for gardens in every area of the country. Here you'll find hardy and tropical lilies, delicate floating plants, the sacred lotus, and plants for the edge of the pond - irises, ornamental grasses, and broadleaved background plants. Here, too, are the best fish, snails, and other helpers to keep the pond pristine and the gardener entertained.

About this title

From Library Journal

With many beautiful photographs accompanying a straightforward text, Heriteau, author of the National Arboretum Book of Outstanding Garden Plants (see Laura Lipton's "Regional Gardening Books and How They Grow," LJ 12/93, p. 83-86), and Thomas show how to site, construct, and maintain water gardens in a home landscape. In Part 1, they discuss the practicalities of choosing the size and type of water garden, from small containers to large ponds. They also consider liners, pumping and filtering systems, and drainage. In Part 2, the authors describe briefly the various plants that can be used in and around a water garden and factors to considerin choosing them, including hardiness, colors, and planting and cultivating instructions. Also discussed are what kinds, and what numbers, of aquatic life to stock, such as goldfish, snails, frogs, and turtles (avoid the latter). For popular gardening collections.
- Pamela R. Daubenspeck, Warren-Trumbull Cty. P.L., Warren, Ohio
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Publishers Weekly

Water gardens are a hot topic these days, and this may be just the book for gardeners seeking a soup-to-nuts guide to creating ones of their own. A collaborative effort by Heriteau (Feast of Flowers) and Thomas, a noted horticulturalist who owns a large commercial supplier of water garden material, the attractively designed volume is packed with 100 full-color photographs and expert information. The sole drawback, a somewhat stodgy prose style, is offset by the clarity and thoroughness of the instructions, which lead readers step-by-step through the entire process, from siting and installation of a man-made pond to such finer points as how to camouflage the water pump. In the second half of the book, the authors offer an exceptionally complete lineup of planting suggestions (water lilies, iris, wild grasses and so on) and tips on how to stock water garden fauna as well.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0395656338
• ISBN 13: 9780395656334
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 230