Building Natural Ponds: Create a Clean, Algae-free Pond without Pumps, Filters, or Chemicals

Build a Natural Pond for Wildlife, Beauty and Quiet Contemplation

The most comprehensive book on designing and building natural ponds. A must-read for the garden enthusiast and designer.
- DR. ROSS MARS, author, The Permaculture Transition Manual

I highly recommend this book to anyone considering adding water to their garden.
- BRIAN MINTER, horticulturalist, gardening entrepreneur, co-owner of Minter Country Garden

TYPICAL BACKYARD PONDS are a complicated mess of pipes, pumps, filters, and chemicals designed to adjust pH and keep algae at bay. Hardly the bucolic, natural ecosystem beloved by dragonflies, frogs, and songbirds.

The antidote is a natural pond, free of hassle, cost, and complexity and designed as a fully functional ecosystem, ideal for biodiversity, swimming, irrigation, and quiet contemplation.

Building Natural Ponds is the first step-by-step guide to designing and building natur al ponds that use no pumps, filters, chemicals, or electricity, and mimic native ponds in both aesthetics and functionality. Highly illustrated with how-to drawings and photographs, coverage includes:

• Understanding pond ecosystems and natural algae control
• Planning, design, siting, and pond aesthetics
• Step-by-step guidance for construction, plants and fish, and maintenance and trouble shooting
• Scaling up to large ponds, and adding pools, bogs, and rain gardens.

Whether you're a backyard gardener looking to add a small serene natural water feature or a homesteader with visions of a large pond for fish, swimming, and irrigation, Building Natural Ponds is the complete guide to building ponds in tune with nature, where plants, insects, and amphibians thrive in blissful serenity.

Very thorough with guidance for every step from planning to digging to stocking with fish to planting to...well, everything you need to know.
- LEE REICH, PhD, author, The Pruning Book and Weedless Gardening

ROBERT PAVLIS, a Master Gardener with over 40 years of gardening experience, is owner and developer of Aspen Grove Gardens, a six-acre botanical garden featuring over 2,500 varieties of plants. A well-respected speaker and teacher, Robert is the author of Garden Myths and the widely-read blog GardenMyths.com, and the gardening information site GardenFundamentals.com.