List your garden | Search
Gardenvisit.com The Garden Guide
Garden and Landscape Design Products > Water garden design considerations > Reflecting ponds

Reflecting ponds - review

Pond Construction Guide

Water is a reflective material but to ensure that a small pond is reflective the following principles should be observed:

  • the base of the pond should black, not white. If the base is light (eg mosaic tiles) then one sees the base as well as the reflection, and it may well be more prominent
  • there must be something to reflect! This can be (1) the sky (2) vegetation (3) a building. If there is a dark backdrop to the pool then the water will look dark - and it might be better to give the pool a light-coloured base.
  • as always with reflections, 'the angle of incidence is equal to the angle of
  • reflection'. In the diagram (below) the observer will see half the pool reflecting the dark hedge and half the pool reflecting the bright sky.

The pond reflects the sky

The pool surface is predominantly dark, because the background is dark.

The light colour of the pool base diminishes the reflections, but since the background is predominantly dark this is desirable

The ripple pattern on the pool surface is enhanced by the dark background and light pool floor