Indoor Water Garden Design: 20 Eye-catching Designs to Bring the Outdoors Into Your Home [Hardcover]

Yvonne Rees (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 15, 2002

Here's twenty water garden designs that will bring elegant outdoor garden features inside the home. Designs come with step-by-step instructions, and cover a wide spectrum of choices to suit individual home interiors, available space, and budget considerations. The author discusses needed tools and equipment—everything from pumps and filters for the water features to the required building materials for both raised and sunken indoor pools. The projects are presented in a series of detailed photos and diagrams that are complemented with instructive text. Projects include water gardens that range in size from a tabletop fountain decorated with small plants to a large sunken conservatory pool embellished with luxuriant tropical greenery and distinctive lighting and seating features. Other designs include room corner pools, room divider fountains, a shell grotto with a small pond, and even an indoor swimming pool with an adjoining water garden. Following the design projects are a detailed plant directory with cultivation advice, and a directory of appropriate fish breeds for various pond types and sizes. A concluding chapter offers detailed advice on indoor water garden maintenance. More than 200 full-color illustrations.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Yvonne Rees is editor of Water Gardener magazine, published in the U.K. She is featured on British radio and TV with gardening advice, and has written nine previously published books on gardening and water gardens.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 144 pages
• Publisher: Barron's Educational Series; 1 edition (January 15, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0764153749
• ISBN-13: 978-0764153747
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 9.8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #816,191 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars SMALL water gardens, May 14, 2003

By 

Valerie Adolph "Coast Journal" (Pacific Northwest) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Indoor Water Garden Design: 20 Eye-catching Designs to Bring the Outdoors Into Your Home (Hardcover)

Don't be fooled by the title - these are water gardens that will work equally well indoors or out. This is the first book I've seen that focuses on SMALL water gardens. Usually I find that books on water gardens show a couple of small ones then go on to plan something they call a pond and I call a small lake. I don't have space for a small lake, but I do like having a water feature. Better still, I like two of them.

So I learned a lot from Yvonne Rees' book which gives careful plans, including construction suggestions for 20 small water gardens. Whether you build them inside or outside is up to you. Well illustrated, this book has information on plants and fish that will work well with each water garden, as well as tips for maintaining it. At the end of the book is a list of suppliers in the UK, US, Australia and New Zealand.

The first chapter, "Before You Start", helps you face up to some of the aspects of installing a water garden that you might not have considered. You need, for instance to consider the placement carefully. Where can the water garden best be seen? Where will it best fit into the rest of your garden? Where can guests enjoy it as you entertain, or where can it be a secret hideaway, just for you? If you would like a fountain or waterfall, where is the nearest electrical outlet?

The strength of this book lies in its practical advice for constructing raised or sunken water gardens. Most water gardens, except for those in pots, must be either raised or sunken and much of the success of either is based on careful planning and meticulous construction. Once the basics are safely in place you can relax and enjoy adding the finishing touches - you can make your water garden lush, or natural, contemporary or classical or combine the features of each that please you. You can add fountains, pebbles, plants or statuary. Making it into your dream pond is up to you. This book shows you how to tackle the project and how to adapt basic water features to your own style.

I have to admit I got carried way mentally designing different ponds based on the author's ideas and, as I said, I already have two water features in a tiny garden. I was especially drawn to the herb tray. It was a long wooden box partitioned into three or five sections. The middle section contained a terra cotta pot, set in gravel, with a tiny fountain bubbling in its centre.

The other sections had similar pots sunk in gravel, each containing herb plants. In the book the author suggests a windowsill for this but outside you could put it in any sunny location with access to electricity for the fountain pump. The author shows you, with simple diagrams, how to make the box and the water feature and she suggests some herbs that would work well in this setting. Et Voila! A herb garden and a water feature in a very tiny space.

Some of the water gardens are much more complex than this and you might find yourself calling in a contractor if you are not accustomed to construction projects. But all of the 20 designs can be adapted to simpler ponds, and all have a "Behind the Scenes" page showing how the work is done.

So if you have been dreaming of a water feature, but you didn't think you had enough space, or you didn't know what kind, or how to go about making it - enough with the excuses. Get this book, and get started on your water feature.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Small water features, May 16, 2003

By 

Valerie Adolph "Coast Journal" (Pacific Northwest) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Indoor Water Garden Design: 20 Eye-catching Designs to Bring the Outdoors Into Your Home (Hardcover)

Don't be fooled by the title - these are water gardens that will work indoors or out. This is the first book I've seen that focuses on SMALL water gardens. Usually I find that books on water gardens show a couple of small ones then go on to plan something they call a pond and I call a lake. I don't have space for a lake, but I do like having a water feature. Better still, I like two of them.

So I learned a lot from Yvonne Rees' book which gives careful plans, including construction suggestions for 20 small water gardens. Whether you build them inside or outside is up to you. Well illustrated, this book has information on plants and fish that will work well with each water garden, as well as tips for maintaining it. At the end of the book is a list of suppliers in the UK, US, Australia and New Zealand.

The first chapter, "Before You Start", helps you face up to some of the aspects of installing a water garden that you might not have considered. You need, for instance to consider the placement carefully. Where can the water garden best be seen? Where will it best fit into the rest of your garden? Where can guests enjoy it as you entertain, or where can it be a secret hideaway, just for you? If you would like a fountain or waterfall, where is the nearest electrical outlet?

The strength of this book lies in its practical advice for constructing raised or sunken water gardens. Most water gardens, except for those in pots, must be either raised or sunken and much of the success of either is based on careful planning and meticulous construction. Once the basics are safely in place you can relax and enjoy adding the finishing touches - you can make your water garden lush, or natural, contemporary or classical or combine the features of each that please you. You can add fountains, pebbles, plants or statuary. Making it into your dream pond is up to you. This book shows you how to tackle the project and how to adapt basic water features to your own style.

Some of the water gardens are fairly complex and you might find yourself calling in a contractor if you are not accustomed to construction projects. But all of the 20 designs can be adapted to simpler ponds, and all have a "Behind the Scenes" page showing how the work is done.

So if you have been dreaming of a water feature, but you didn't think you had enough space, or you didn't know what kind, or how to go about making it - enough with the excuses. Get this book, and get started on your water feature.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful and Complete, March 17, 2004

By 

Phire "Truth Seeker" (Portland, ME) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Indoor Water Garden Design: 20 Eye-catching Designs to Bring the Outdoors Into Your Home (Hardcover)

This book is not only beautiful with full color images but delivers complete instructions for making simple water features to more intricate designs. You will be inspired to create your own designs as well as following the instructions between it's cover. At the very least this would make a beautiful "coffee table" book.