Welcome to earthponds
A resource for pond builders, pond lovers, and home owners.
Why earthponds?
Experience and Knowledge
Tim Matson is an award winning author about ponds, pond design, and pond building. If you are into pond building, planning to build a pond, or repairing an existing pond, you have come to the right place. Tim consults with scores of property owners each year, providing advice and counsel at reasonable rates. Photo by Joe Mehling.
Monthly Pondology Essays
Each month, Tim writes an original essay about pond maintenance; the latest trends in design; ecological concerns; and wetlands regulations. NEWS FROM THE WATERFRONT can be delivered directly to you via email. Use the contact form to sign up for the pondology, or contact Tim about your pond project.
APRIL 2021: Before Covid's one-year anniversary uses up all the candles, here's another event to commemorate: the 2020 drought. Starting last spring, here in the east and spreading west, the weather started to go dry, and by summer there was a full-blown drought in progress. Those with ponds will likely remember water levels dropping, water temperatures rising, and algae blooms blooming. Unless your pond has generous water supplies, and perhaps super leak resistance (membrane liner, thick native clay, bentonite, or another sealant) you may have lost fish and quit swimming on account of discolored water, globs of algae, and weeds. For pond owners with concerns about basins that may not be great at water retention, fears of another drought, or both, check out ideas about maintaining a good water level, click here.
Tim matson'S photography website
Another Side of Tim Matson
Before his work in pond design, Tim Matson was an award-winning photographer and story teller. His new website offers a look at early work, much of it never seen. Now you can.
"Matson has the eye of a cinematographer,"
The Harvard Crimson
CLICK HERE to visit the new site.
Featured book
Earth Ponds A-Z Encyclopedia
"Aside from some particularly thoughtful frogs and phragmites, no one on earth knows more about ponds than Tim Matson. His books have counseled and consoled me through the digging of two ponds, making a daunting process far more interesting and pleasurable than it deserved to be. His... A to Z Encyclopedia is the ultimate pond-owner's companion, brimming with sound advice, smart suggestions, and answers to ancient riddles. But this book doesn't only instruct -- there's delight here too." Michael Pollan,
author of the Botany of Desire, Cooked, How to Change Your Mind, and more.