Projects range from simple to more advanced. Readers can choose among a classic wall-mounted fountaio spout, a traditional or contemporary cascade and garden pond, an authentic Japanese-style bamboo water pump, witty water sculptures, and more. With 16 projects in all, this book has something to offer all tastes, budgets, and abilities.
Each project is accompanied by clear, step-by-step photographs and easy-to-follow instructions, plus helpful tips and techniques. Also included is a list of tools and materials. Whether readers imagine a container bog garden, a romantic millstone fountain, or a cascade, this book will help them make it a reality.
There are useful sections on tools, materials and pumps, and you'll find plenty of illustrations, including cross-sections of the construction project.
There is no bibliography, just a reading list that is really tacky because it only lists other books published by the same publisher. Unless you're new to gardening I'd stay away from books published by Storey. There is nothing basically wrong with them, but they lack the depth, originality and insight that the more experienced gardener generally seeks.
The book has information about tools, materials and plants, well illustrated with photographs and watercolor drawings. There are even maintenance tips. Some of the projects are as small as container fountains and some as large as ponds. They even discuss "bog gardening." Most of the designs fall in the small to medium size range.
Among the more interesting projects is a "Japanese Deer Scarer" which is an animated bamboo fixture that beats on a rock while dumping water. Also unique is a "Wine Bottle Spray Fountain." (We are avidly gathering the materials for this one as I write.) There are several that utilize sheet copper parts and one made from glass bricks.
There are lots of good tips on design that you can use for your own variations. If you are only going to buy one book on outdoor water features, get this one. It is sure to be an inspiration for your next weekend "water" project.
Softcover, 80 pages, Published 2002
Customer Reviews:
The Basics.......2007-03-15
This paperback gives you the basics, step by step, for constructing a water feature. It doesn't overwhelm you with projects that you can't possibly complete. Good entry level book.
Book Description
Celebrated designer Keith Davitt brings the delights of the water garden within reach of everyone in Water Features for Small Gardens. With a clear eye to design, construction, materials, and maintenance, Davitt offers alternatives for every style of garden and every budget. Detailed case studies depict actual gardens progressing from the planning stage to planting, and the author shows step by step how such features are created using only modest building skills. Types of water gardens discussed include: natural, formal, and informal pools; raised and in-ground formal fountains; wall fountains; streams and waterfalls; and bog and tub gardens. Heavily illustrated and packed with practical information, Water Features for Small Gardens is a must for any gardener seeking to bring his or her garden to the next level.
Customer Reviews:
Not helpful for building water features.......2005-10-28
This was mostly a book discussing what not to do and naturalizing your water feature. This is not a good how-to type book.
So natural, yet man-made !!.......2005-01-22
Keith Davitt takes water features to the next (natural)level with careful scrutiny of stone shapes, colors, sizes, placement. With the same attention to detail, he has an uncanny feel for scale (how large to make the feature given the amount of space there is to work with). I really like the photos that demonstrate his points. The ponds and growth really look like they belong there. Great work!!
on Keith Davitt's book, Water Features for Small Gardens.......2005-01-15
This is a gorgeous book! The pictures (by the author) are luscious, the gardens are inspiring: it does the heart good just to look at them, even if you haven't got a garden, or have one but can't afford to remake it. He doesn't just rate his own gardens, he also commends other well-made water gardens, so the scope is wider than might be expected. The writing is clear, friendly, and concise. Even the book design is inviting and elegant. Very highly recommended for gardeners of all skill levels--and wistful nongardeners, too. I loved it!
Water Features for Small Gardens: From Concept to Constructi.......2005-01-09
Excellent book! I found a ton of great ideas to use on my new property. Well worth the price.
A Must.......2005-01-07
Water Features for Small Gardens is a wonderful book.
Most books of this sort show incredible water features only for the very wealthy but this book not only shows beautiful, attainable water features but explains, with photos and diagrams, how to build them. Mr. Davitt includes virtually every type of water feature from tub gardens to streams and shows a wide range of styles, many of his own creations and many from other designers. For anyone wanting a comprehensive,
beautifully illustrated book on water features, this is a must.
Book Description
An updated, expanded edition of Creative Homeowners comprehensive guide to water gardens, Complete Guide to Water Gardens, Ponds Fountains 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. Special sections on aquatic plants, fish, and other pond inhabitants bring life to these essential garden features. Beautifully illustrated with dozens of inspiring landscape photographs, plus step-by-step sequences and instructions, the book shows readers all they need to know to create and maintain the water garden of their dreams.
Customer Reviews:
Water Gardens.......2007-07-26
A great reference for the home gardener. Very clear color pictures to
spark ideas for your water feature.
A definite 'Must Have' for beginning water gardeners.......2007-05-16
The cover pulled me in. I was in the process of designing that very same 'round' pool, in a similar patio.
But the interior of the book is what convinced me that the price was more than worth it.
The photo images are crisp and beautiful, the text easy to understand and the entire book is a grand encouragement to creativity.
This book is now one of the treasured volumes in my personl library.
Anna Marie Fritz, author and artist (and water gardener).
Book Description
Gardening enthusiasts need to look no further than this complete guide to all aspects of water gardens, including sections on pools, fountains, waterfalls, streams, and rain gardens.
Illustrated step-by-step instructions and detailed troubleshooting tips make successful installation a snap for do-it-yourself homeowners of every skill level.
More than 340 color photographs illustrate techniques and inspire readers to create their dream water garden.
Confidence-building guide gives readers everything they need to tackle indoor and outdoor water gardens and other landscaping projects.
Customer Reviews:
Pictures are good but missing details.......2006-06-12
After readign the other reviews I purchased this book. I am very disappointed. I had a lot of questions and this book failed to answer them. It is not very detailed or complete. I found the book "Waterfalls, Ponds and Streams" to be much more detailed and complete. It provides much better quidance in building a pond and stream.
All the reader needs to know about adding a water feature to one's garden.......2006-03-08
Water Gardens: Pools, Streams & Fountains Is A Better Homes And Gardens how-to manual packed with all the reader needs to know about adding a water feature to one's garden. Chapters cover how to design and plan a water feature, including choosing the right materials and arranging a proper water source, electrical source, and usage of pumps; constructing an indoor or outdoor water garden; enhancing a water garden with seating, paths, decks, lighting, or other features; maintaining a water garden; ideal plants and animals for a water garden, and much more. Methodical instructions and full-color photographs on every page make Water Gardens simplicity itself to use. Highly recommended for anyone interested in adding a water garden to their home.
All the reader needs to know about adding a water feature to one's garden.......2006-03-08
Water Gardens: Pools, Streams & Fountains Is A Better Homes And Gardens how-to manual packed with all the reader needs to know about adding a water feature to one's garden. Chapters cover how to design and plan a water feature, including choosing the right materials and arranging a proper water source, electrical source, and usage of pumps; constructing an indoor or outdoor water garden; enhancing a water garden with seating, paths, decks, lighting, or other features; maintaining a water garden; ideal plants and animals for a water garden, and much more. Methodical instructions and full-color photographs on every page make Water Gardens simplicity itself to use. Highly recommended for anyone interested in adding a water garden to their home.
All the reader needs to know about adding a water feature to one's garden.......2006-03-08
Water Gardens: Pools, Streams & Fountains Is A Better Homes And Gardens how-to manual packed with all the reader needs to know about adding a water feature to one's garden. Chapters cover how to design and plan a water feature, including choosing the right materials and arranging a proper water source, electrical source, and usage of pumps; constructing an indoor or outdoor water garden; enhancing a water garden with seating, paths, decks, lighting, or other features; maintaining a water garden; ideal plants and animals for a water garden, and much more. Methodical instructions and full-color photographs on every page make Water Gardens simplicity itself to use. Highly recommended for anyone interested in adding a water garden to their home.
Amazon.com
Few elements are as ubiquitous or as essential as water, or as appealing for the soothing sights and sounds with which it enhances our environment. Fountains are the ideal way to incorporate water's magic into our homes and gardens, and the fountain maker becomes something of an illusionist, striving emulate nature and to conceal the mechanics that make the perpetual flow of water possible.
Dorcas Adkins is certainly a magician when it comes to fountain design. Her wizardry encompasses bamboo, wood, ceramic, concrete, stone, and metal creations, from small tabletop delights to full-sized garden waterfalls. Her extremely thorough and well-diagrammed instructions make even the most complex projects approachable--and some of them are indeed fairly complex, involving woodworking skills, plaster and concrete casting, ceramic modeling, soldering, or rigging an existing sculpture. But the results are well worth the effort, yielding Zen-like arrangements in which water trickles over a miniature bonsai garden, through bamboo piping, or into a rustic stone trough filled with water lilies; or more traditional Western constructions such as a ewer-toting cherub, a shell-and-stone-and-tile mosaic, or various spouting faces.
Beginners or those seeking smaller-scale productions are best off starting with a more basic approach, like Dawn Cusick's Tabletop Fountains. But for the more adventurous fountaineers, it's hard to beat Adkins's presentation, which also helpfully includes a list of mail-order suppliers and a useful at-a-glance guide to finding general materials, from antique tubs to pond liners to wooden barrels. --Amy Handy
Book Description
Everything readers need to know to create elegant, soothing water fountains. Easy-to-follow instructions explain choosing and installing pumps and constructing fountains.
Customer Reviews:
Fountain magic.......2000-05-19
A truely awesome book. I came upon it when I looked through Angel Lee's review list and ordered it. I am indebted to her! I have been making my own fountains since I bought my 1st home 6 years ago, and wanted new ideas. These are wonderful. Some of the simpler dish-type gardens will make lovely Christmas gifts, and I look forward to starting them. For the more adventurous, there are more complex and larger fountains/ponds, all truely picturesque, which would be great fun for anyone with a reasonable sized yard. A friend has created one on his terraced front lawn, and it captures the attention of by passers, making his neighborhood The Place to visit of late. For the truely enthused, there are directions for casting subjects in ceramics, for designing cement fountains or basins, and even for making masks of living persons. Although many items can be collected from the "saved" materials everyone seems to store away in garages or from yard and garage sales, those like pumps, tubing, and other hardware items can be found at nurseries and hardward stores. There is also a very useful list of addresses where other types of supplies may be found. I can hardly wait to get started! Thanks again Angel.
Build a wide variety of impressive fountains with ease.......2000-04-03
This is a wonderful book for constructing beautiful & impressive looking fountains. The fountains here are unexpectedly easy to construct & cost far less than commercial ones. It is filled with ideas that allow the maker to add his own unique touch.
The materials selection is varied. Almost any watertight vessel can be the basis of a small fountain. Other materials include bamboo, wood, ceramic, concrete, stone & metal. Pump selection & mechanical requirements are also covered.
Projects range from small table-top fountains to elaborate outdoor units. There are even instructions for a 3' high tiered waterfall. All have clear construction diagrams & color photos of the finished work.
Helpful extras include lists of suitable plants to use with the fountains, suggestions for finding materials, & a list of mail order suppliers. This is the book to get if you want to know the joy of building a fountain of your own creation.
Great book.......2000-02-16
I knew the minute I saw the cover of Simple Fountains for Indoors and Outdoors that it was exactly what I was looking for. The cover photograph is an appealing table fountain. Inside the book is a well thought out plan designed to help the novice achieve success making tabletop or other indoor/outdoor fountains.
Every conceivable problem is addressed with buying information,pictures,diagrams and trouble shooting.
I know I can create a beautiful water fountain from the information presented in Ms.Adkins' book. I recommend it highly.
Simple Fountains for Indoors & Outdoors.......1999-11-26
This is a beautiful book & it's written by a true expert - and artist. Dorcas Adkins has been designing & making fountains & other garden art for 10 years. We had her bamboo flute fountain in our garden in Ohio, which we had to leave behind when we moved, so I was very pleased to discover this book. It provides detailed & clear instructions (along with inspiration) for indoor & outdoor fountains.
Beautiful and Useful Combined!.......1999-11-11
Adkins' treatment of these beautiful fountains and how to create them is just what is needed by those of us who want to listen to their soothing sound and see their sparkling light at home. What is best, is the steps are so easy to follow!
Book Description
Lavishly illustrated with 150 color photographs, this highly visual guide teaches readers how to create exciting water gardens in containers for inside the home or outside. Using the book's step-by-step instructions, photos, and drawings, readers will learn how to construct, plant, stock, and maintain a water garden. Includes suggestions for the best water garden plants, fish, and
Customer Reviews:
Beautiful book.......2006-12-02
I bought this book on the recommendation of the instructor of a course given at the New York Botanical Gardens. The book is so exquisite that I keep it within arm's reach at all times. Besides its beauty, the directory of plants, information on hardiness zones, and the section on things you need to know give invaluable practical information. With this knowledge, I have been able to keep a small container water garden going strong for over a year, even during last winter's snowstorms.
Great Plant List.......2005-07-29
The most helpful thing in the book was the easy to read, easy to understand plant guide in the back. It gives a photo of the plant and tells the growing zones, if the plant needs sun or shade, if it is an annual or perennial, and if it grows in in deep water, shallow water, or damp soil. The plant directory alone makes this book worth purchasing.
Quick and Easy Container Water Gardening.......2000-02-05
I was so excited to receive the book because I wanted to learn how to create wonderful water garden features. I ordered the book specifically to learn how to make the shishi-odoshi water feature. I was so disappointed to find that the book, which has great pictures,has very little information on how to do any of the pictured features. The book falls far short of my expectations. If I saw it in a book store, I would not buy it. It is a real disappointment that a noted horticulturalist, having the knowledge to help all of us novices, decidedly omits key information. This is not a quick and easy how to do book on water gardening. I can do much better watching Home and Garden Television. I wish I had my money back!
clever ideas but missing some practical information.......1999-07-31
Lots of clever ideas for small water gardens, as well as helpful general information on appropriate plants, fish, etc. However, it would have been nice if the author had provided a list of suppliers, at least for the more esoteric items. I too would like to make a shishi-odoshi fountain, but haven't the first idea where to buy the shishi-odoshi that is the first item on the list of project supplies (!). Also, while each of the finished projects is nicely photographed it would have been a great help if there were more photographs or illustrations of more of the projects in the construction stage.
Lots of good ideas.......1999-04-13
If you long to add the calming elegance of water to your garden this author shows many clever ways to achieve it. I like the simplicity of some of the containers-a window box, strawberry jars, sinks, etc. I plan to try the classical bamboo shishi-odoshi.A helpful plant directory is included too. -Linda Fry Kenzle, author of Gathering:Using Simple Materials From the Garden and Nature
Product Description
BOOK ORTHO CREATING WATER GARDENS BOOK BOOK
Book Description
Explains how to design and install all types of water gardens, from naturalistic to formal, as well as fountains, waterfalls, streams, and bog gardens-step by step. Includes plants, fish, and other pond inhabitants. Over 400 color photos.
Customer Reviews:
Best book I have seen on water gardens.......2000-06-06
This is the best book I have seen on water gardens. It covers every step of the process from planning and construction through landscaping to stocking with fish and even maintenance.
Many options are presented as far as size style and building methods for ponds, fountains, waterfalls, and streams. Fully illustrated with color photos and diagrams this is above all a great "how to do it" book.
There is extensive coverage on choosing and caring for fish and other wildlife. A large encyclopedia of foliage including floating plants, marginals, ferns, shrubs and trees is also included. A photo, physical description, zones it will tolerate, & often some advice is given for each. Tons of landscaping enhancements are also suggested.
There is history of water gardening and plenty of photos of beautiful finished gardens to give you ideas as well. I can't emphasize too strongly through how important this hands-on book is for someone who want to create a water garden of their own.
Books:
- Outside the Not So Big House: Creating the Landscape of Home
- P. Allen Smith's Container Gardens: 60 Container Recipes to Accent Your Garden
- Pirone's Tree Maintenance
- Planting Green Roofs and Living Walls
- Pots in the Garden: Expert Design and Planting
- Pots in the Garden: Expert Design and Planting
- Professional Planting Design: An Architectural and Horticultural Approach for Creating Mixed Bed Plantings
- Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook: Recipes from Hunan Province
- Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook: Recipes from Hunan Province
- Scotts Lawns: Your Guide to a Beautiful Yard
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Landscape
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Smart Guide: Ponds & Fountains: Step-by-Step Projects (Smart Guide)
How to Build Ponds and Waterfalls: The Complete Guide
All About Building Waterfalls, Ponds, and Streams (Ortho's All About Gardening)
Water Features for Small Gardens: From Concept to Construction
Sunset Garden Pools: Fountains & Waterfalls
