Product Description

With easy-to-follow advice on designing, stocking and managing garden ponds, this guide deals with the planning and installation of the pool, and shows how to solve common problems such as green water, blanket weed and predator attacks. It also answers questions on which fish and plants to choose.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11272 in Books
• Published on: 1998-12-18
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 208 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Are you a pond keeper or a water gardener? And what is the difference between them? Is your interest mainly in fish, or do you consider plants to be the essential items in your water scheme; or indeed do you value them equally? Are you an enthusiast or a newcomer to the hobby? Into which ever category you fall, this book could certainly be the choice for you.

A Pond Owner's Handbook by John Dawes is a comprehensive publication containing many attractive colour photographs which deal with all aspects of plant care and fish keeping. It is well set out in five clear parts: pond set-up, pond fish, pond plants, pond wildlife and pond management, each section being extensively sub-divided offering vast amounts of practical advice including question and answer features.

John Dawes is internationally renowned and is an authority on fish, aquaria and outdoor fish keeping. Formerly a teacher and university lecturer, he is now a noteworthy freelance author, editor, and aquatic consultant. He has written extensively in magazines and journals all over the world, has written many books, also being involved in producing films and videos. He now lives in Southern Spain. --Susan Naylor

Customer Reviews

All you ever wanted to know about ponds and water features.
John Dawes is an "internationally renowned authority on fish, aquaria and outdoor fishkeeping" according to the publishers blurb on the jacket of this book. He has written and edited numerous books and articles on all things 'fishy', not to mention producing films and videos, editing trade journals and becoming a highly respected show judge. With this pedigree, you would expect "The Pond Owners Handbook" to be something special - and it is.

The book is divided into five detailed and comprehensive sections - Pond Set up, Pond Fish,Pond Plants, Pond Wildlife and Pond Management - which deal with every kind of pond feature from a wildlife pond to a half barrel.

The whole book is beautifully illustrated with both drawings and stunning photographs - particularly useful in identifying fish diseases. And, in each sub-section, are a collection of Frequently Asked Questions - everything you ever wanted to know about ponds but were afraid to ask.

There are literally dozens of useful tips throughout the book on everything from how to discourage visiting herons to how to humanely dispose of an incurably sick fish. It is aimed mainly at the amateur pond builder, outlining the siting, construction, stocking and maintenance of a garden pond in easily understandable language. Yet, it is so comprehensive that those who consider themselves 'professionals' will surely learn something too.

"The Pond Owners Handbook" is without doubt the most beautifully presented, clear and comprehensive book on the subject that I have ever come across. An interesting and useful read and a detailed reference book, which, I have no doubt, will be referred to over and over again by it's readers in years to come.

Pond Owner's Handbook (Your Questions Answered)
This is a great book for anyone interested in ponds. Even though my pond already exists, I find great interest in the design and building sections as well as those on planting and fish-keeping.

It is written in a light-hearted and mildly humorous fashion but still covers important and serious subjects.

I cannot praise it highly enough; my only criticisms are that it does not cover the new pressurised filters which can go in the ground and that it is a paper-back as it is a book worthy of being kept.