Water Gardens: Building, Planting and Maintaining Water Features

What customers say about Water Gardens: Building, Planting and Maintaining Water Features?

1. 1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

   
   Full of information, 6 Feb. 2012

   By 

   Mick Read –

   This review is from: Water Gardens: Building, Planting and Maintaining Water Features (Hardcover)

   Ben Helm’s and Kelly Billing’s book contains a wealth of technical information and seems to cover all aspects of building and maintaining a pond. Here you will find subjects ranging from planning the type and size of pond you want to breeding fish, and that’s its problem really. It is potentially a huge subject, if you want to cover everything from Capability Brown’s damming of the local river to a four-by-four water feature in your back yard, and one small-ish book simply cannot do it all justice, so it skims the surface. I didn’t feel particularly engaged by the book either; it is very much a “How To” book that sets out to tick all the boxes but lacks any sense of experience and does not get into what I would call “real” situations. I also felt it failed to provide any sense of context: what is your garden like and what options for a pond might suit you best, rather than simply a list of pond types; how will it enhance the existing local natural habitat; what family factors should you be considering, like young children for example, and what precautions might you take. Plants and fish types are dealt with in some detail as are practical pond care aspects.
   Ben and Kelly know their ponds and could handle a society talk or question and answer session to great effect. I just found the book a tad boring and it has not really helped me build my pond.

   Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 

   Was this review helpful to you? 
   

   
   |

    Comment