When most people think of a garden pond, they envisage a leafy hub of aquatic wildlife and a tranquil spot to relax after a hard day at work. But a pond does not always have to provide a suitable living environment for aquatic life, in fact many garden designers are now using ponds or water features to bring water into the garden just for display purposes.

Formal ponds should always compliment existing garden features and fit in well with their surroundings. They may not contain plant or fish life but they should still do in essence what they are designed to do. Most formal ponds use symmetrical shapes like ovals, squares of rectangles. They may feature a fountain or a waterfall as the centre point and the surrounding planting is usually done in similar shapes to the pond to mimic the design. If you have a small or narrow garden water features like this can make the garden feel bigger and longer, especially when you use mirrors as part of the design. If you do include plants in your formal pond design, it is always advisable to keep to the same symmetrical patterns as your ponds initial design.