Books » Specialty Gardening

Lavish, full-color photographs and plenty of practical tips and instructions will help you create the backyard of your dreams. From formal gardens to family-friendly ones, the world's best-known authority has a plan for improving your garden with a water feature that's right for you.

Eighteen different garden types with incorporated water features span a range of styles and meet a variety of needs. Have small children? Add a child-safe pebble pond. No room? Try a mini water garden in a coniainer. Want your shady garden to feel like a woodland paradise? Add a waterfall. Attract wildlife, raise fish, overcome challenges of climate, and more. Put a garden on a deck: hanging containers and potted plants framing entries, accenting corners, and decorating entertainment areas make it such a pleasant space for whiling away time.

Country Living Gardener Water Features for Every Garden by Helen Nash

How to use a wide range of plants in and around your garden pond

Aquarium plants can provide a beautiful display in their own right as well as forming a natural backdrop for the fishes living in the tank. Which plants are best for your water conditions and lighting levels? This new book provides the answers.

The opening section looks at the biology of aquarium plants, water quality, substrates, planting techniques, lighting, feeding, propagation and health care. These are followed by a review of more than 50 reliable aquarium plants for you to grow and enjoy.

A practical guide to pond plants and their cultivation by Derek Lambert

The theme of stone in the garden has emerged as one of the most compelling current trends.

A classic dry-stone retaining or boundary wall can extend for a mile and cost a small fortune to have built, but installing a basic flagstone path will doubtless be within the scope and ability of many readers.

Raines provides valuable how-to advice aimed at creating a variety of paths, ponds, patios, and benches. With years of experience under his belt, Raines shares wise counsel on design, safety, tools, and stonework techniques, including more mortared and veneered walls and columns.

Simple Stonescaping by Phillip Raines

Just because you don't have room for a full-scale pond doesn't mean you can't enjoy a water garden! All it takes is practically any container and a few minutes a week. The beautiful and simple water gardening methods presented here are inspired by the Chinese, who've been doing it for nearly 5,000 years.

Choose from a surprising variety of containers and plantings, from classic lotuses and small water lilies peeking out of traditional urns to pots and tubs on windowsills and door stoops. The book covers everything from dish gardens for indoors, hanging baskets,window boxes, to patio ponds and fountains. These miniature water gardens are part aquarium, part terrarium, and are incredibly easy to care for. Finally -- a simple and impressive way to expand your gardening pleasure!

Water Gardening in Containers: Small Ponds, Indoors & Out by C. Greg Speichert & Helen Nash