Landscaping Earth Ponds: The Complete Guide - Softcover

Matson, Tim

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1626543984 ISBN 13: 9781626543980

Publisher: Echo Point Books & Media, 2016

Synopsis

A fixture of beautiful, ecologically-minded landscape designs, earth ponds are cherished for their innate aesthetic appeal, economic value, and the unique recreational opportunities they offer. Everyone knows that installing a well-designed pond can dramatically improve the value of a piece land, but detailed instructions for how to do so—and do so well—are frustratingly hard to find. Finally, here is a book with answers to all your earth pond questions and more.

 

Tim Matson has spent decades designing earth ponds and the landscapes that surround them. He has a remarkable eye for suiting these charming natural bodies of water to your property and lifestyle. With over 25 years’ experience as an aquaculture consultant and landscape architect, he can teach you everything you need to know about designing and building an earth pond of your very own. In clear, step-by-step directions, Landscaping Earth Ponds explains...

 

How to create a strong aesthetic link between your house and pond

How to encourage plant life and establish lush aquatic gardens

How to accent your pond with winding paths and blooming hedges

How to screen your pond for privacy

How to build natural diving platforms

How to select the best materials for fill, embankments, and sandy beaches

 

Richly illustrated with photos and diagrams, and jam-packed with inspirational ideas, designs, and examples, Landscaping Earth Ponds is the number one resource for sustainable and tasteful pond design.

 

Tim Matson, a prize-winning writer and aquaculture consultant, has been advising people on how to build and maintain ponds and wetlands for more than 25 years through Earth Ponds, his pond design and restoration consulting firm. He has written numerous articles on ponds and aquaculture for Yankee, Harrowsmith Country Life, Country Journal, Vermont Life, Audubon, and other periodicals. He is the author of the Earth Ponds, Earth Ponds Sourcebook, and Earth Ponds A to Z. He also produced the Earth Ponds Video. Matson has presented his ideas at seminars and conferences around the U.S. He lives in Vermont.

Readers interested in related titles from Tim Matson will also want to see: Earth Ponds Sourcebook (ISBN: 9781626543478 ).

About this title

Review:

This is Tim Matson's fourth book on ponds and perhaps the most beautiful yet. Showcasing a range of natural features that might enhance the aesthetic of a country pond, he nonetheless manages to include a lot of useful information for pond builders. Handsome color photos throughout illustrate stone embankments, edge vegetation, specimen trees, benches, and mountain backdrops, while including a few buildings, docks, and other bits of built infrastructure. A handful of nicely executed line drawings show design features, plans, bridge variations, underground connections, and other elements not easily photographed.The style is understated but very informative. The author has made so many ponds he knows the full range of vagaries, opportunities, and problems you may encounter in the process, and shares much of that insight. He explains excavated versus embankment ponds, and how to site the pond. There is a review of pond structure so that the reader understands safe and functional construction, plus discussion of water quality and sources.As his earlier books dealt at greater length with the basic elements of pond construction, this one emphasizes the planting, though this section of the book also addresses environmental conditions, water flows, etc. An extensive list of suppliers, and a catalog of potential pond plants illustrated with color photos rounds out the offering.One caveat - the ponds shown are all from New England, and while the information is broadly applicable, special conditions not discussed may apply in other areas. As the title implies, only earth-sealed, not lined ponds are covered.An optional DVD is available with the book, and I found it to be an unexpected gem. Visual quality was only so-so, but Matson narrates an excellent script and he does it well. The editing is crisp and the film shows great attention to detail. Pond building can be a messy business, but we get to see the machines and the builders at work unadorned. Pond building may be one of

About the Author:

Tim Matson, a writer and aquaculture consultant, has been advising, designing, restoring, and building ponds and wetlands for more than twenty-five years. He is also the author of Earth Ponds, Earth Ponds Sourcebook, and Earth Ponds A to Z. He lives in Strafford, Vermont.

About this edition

• Publisher: Echo Point Books & Media
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 1626543984
• ISBN 13: 9781626543980
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 178