BELDT’S AQUARIUM 
SAINT LOUIS, MO 
THE SUCCESSFUL WATER GARDEN 
The success with water gardens 
depends on quite a number of fea¬ 
tures. One of the most important 
of these features is sufficient sun¬ 
light and equally important is the 
depth of the pond. A number of 
subjects may be taken into con¬ 
sideration when you determine 
the depth of your pool. If you 
only consider the planting of wa¬ 
ter lilies, then your pool will be 
deep enough if you make it from 
18 to 20 inches, but if you want 
to keep goldfish in your pool and 
you want to keep them over the 
winter, you should have a certain 
water depth of usually about 36 
inches, and in some localities 
even deeper water is required. 
One can readily understand that 
everything should be taken into 
consideration in order to have the 
type of pool that will take care 
of your particular requirements. 
Location 
The location of the pool should 
be where it receives a lot of sun¬ 
light. Plenty of sunshine is abso¬ 
lutely necessary for the growth 
and success of water lilies and all 
kinds of aquatic plants. There¬ 
fore, build the pool away from 
large trees and away from build¬ 
ings in order that it may receive 
a maximum amount of sunlight. 
A pool 3 feet deep is best. In 
considering the depth of your 
pool you cannot disregard the 
fact that you may want to leave 
your goldfish in this pool over 
winter. While a 3 foot depth is 
too deep to plant water lilies, 
this depth is an absolute neces¬ 
sity for keeping your goldfish 
healthy over the winter, and in 
some localities even a greater 
depth is to be preferred. In a 
southern climate 20 inches of 
depth is all that is required to 
prevent the goldfish from dying 
over the winter. 
Concrete Mixture 
Use three wheelbarrows full of 
gravel, two wheelbarrows full of 
sand and one sack of cement. 
This makes a good concrete mix¬ 
ture for the average pool. For 
finishing work you should use a 
wheelbarrow three-quarters full 
of sifted sand to one sack of ce¬ 
ment. All concrete work should 
be in the neighborhood of six 
inches thick. Reinforcing of this 
concrete may be accomplished 
through the aid of ordinary 
chicken wire laid in the center of 
this concrete. The sloping walls 
of the informal pool have a great 
tendency to prevent breakage as 
the pressure exerted when the 
water freezes during the winter 
time is not as great as if the 
walls were straight. Therefore, 
the slanting walls really have 
two good features; one is that 
they do not crack as easily during 
the winter time, and the other 
that it is much cheaper to build 
the walls than if you would have 
to build a form to retain them. 
The Formal Pool 
Formal pools may be con¬ 
structed in all various shapes. 
The formal pool as a rule is built 
into the center of the garden or 
near the center. In constructing 
the form work for a formal pool, 
it is a good practice to set this 
form work about six inches from 
the bottom on small pegs of wood 
so that the bottom and sides can 
all be poured at one time. After 
these forms are removed, pull 
these small pegs of wood out of 
the bottom and fill them in with 
concrete finish when the pool is 
finished. This in no way will 
weaken the general structure of 
the pool. Reinforcement may be 
used, though the writer has never 
used much reinforcement in any 
pool. At our plant near Floris¬ 
sant, St. Louis County, Missouri, 
we have around 100 concrete 
tanks varying in size from 6x10 
feet to 20x30 feet and the only 
reinforcement we used in their 
construction is that we lay one 
large iron rod about V 2 inch thick 
into the center of the wall of the 
pond about 4 inches below the 
surface of the ground. The con¬ 
tention is that while water 
freezes, it exerts its most pres¬ 
sure on the concrete right near 
Mrs. E. T. Young of Warren, Indiana, 
enjoying the fragrance of water lilies in 
her pool. 
the ground level, or as far as the 
pool is filled with water. It does 
not exert any pressure below the 
ice. 
DETAIL/ OF CON/THUCTION 
Let Beldt Supply Your Lily Pool Requirements 
and be assured that our 20 years of growing and selling 
water lilies and fancy fish to thousands of customers all 
over the world guarantees you absolute satisfaction. You 
will find our prices very reasonable and the water lilies 
which we ship all true to name and all healthy and vig¬ 
orous plants. You will find our collection most complete. 
No other grower can offer you better quality and lower 
prices. 
Lily pool of the Baybay Agricultural High School, Philippine Islands. Mr. Fred 
Warner, principal, writes: “Enclosed are photographs of two of our lily ponds, in 
which are blooming fifteen kinds of Beldt’s water lilies. Of course the pictures 
give no idea of the color display.” 
Lily pool of Silas W. Rogers, of El Dorado, Arkansas, showing a nice growth of 
cattails, water hyacinths and other bog plants, also tropical water lilies. An infor¬ 
mal pool with a rough rock edge. 
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