Our History:  Once upon a time, Englishman Trevor Cole operated a small retail water garden store called Pondwise out of his landscape offices in Huntsville, Alabama. That small 900-square foot store was basically a hobby to support Cole’s own obsession with his personal backyard pond but the customers kept coming and kept asking for more diverse products.  To accommodate, the business expanded to include not only ponds, filters, fish and aquatic plants but all aspects of nature and outdoor living. Opening in March 2003, Across the Pond, was the evolution of those humble beginnings. That store now has over 24,000 square feet of covered retail space on 5 acres. Since then, Across the Pond has opened a second 11,000 square foot location, on 7 acres in Florence, Alabama.  We provide one of the largest and most diverse selections of nature supplies, ponds, fish, and garden gifts in the Southeast. Our goal is to offer diverse and interesting products that relate to outdoor living and nature, supported by a knowledgeable and friendly staff. Many of our employees have been with us since the early days.

 

Our family: Trevor Cole is a farm boy from rural Cambridgeshire, England who immigrated to the United States in 1992 when he married Huntsville, Alabama native Jeannie Bennett.  Although Jeannie is a career prosecutor with the Madison County District Attorney’s Office, she also has a family history in the horticultural business. The Coles young daughter Olivia, a native of Jiangxi Province, China, is the company ‘spokesmodel’ who fortunately has inherited her parents' love of nature.  

 

Our experience: Although Trevor was in the landscape business both in the U.S. and in England for many years, his life-long personal interest has always been in birding and pond-keeping.  He grew up in a region of England known as The Fens, which is essentially marshland reclaimed from the sea. This flat, wind-swept and swampy land was an ideal place to foster a curious young farm boy's interest in water, plants and nature in general.  Trevor's love of the outdoors was only enhanced when he moved to the temperate climate of the American South and he cultivated his own backyard pond. He began experimenting with all things aquatic from filtration to fish which led to the opening of his retail and wholesale pond businesses.

 

Trevor has been a frequent lecturer both in the US and abroad on all aspects of water gardening, filtration, landscaping, and fish-keeping. He writes a bi-weekly professional blog for Water Garden News and he has appeared regularly on television and radio as a gardening and outdoor living expert. In 2007, he was a member of a successful expedition led by famed horticulturalists Don Bryne (of Sewanee Laboratories) and Patrick Nutt (33-year veteran of Longwood Gardens) to the Brazilian Amazon in search of the elusive Dwarf Victoria Lily, a new species of water lily never before identified. Trevor and Jeannie --- often with Olivia in tow --- enjoy traveling all over the world to investigate and explore the different cultures of the water gardening and fish-keeping industries. 

               

Venice, Italy                                                                   Orange Beach, Alabama

 

Florence, Alabama                                                                Guangdong, China