Natural swimming ponds

gartenART talk to Stewart Andersen on the methods used in the creation of natural swimming ponds or pools. They’re an asset to any property, at home or abroad

A natural swimming pool/natural swimming pond is specifically designed so you can swim in pure, clear water with no chemicals. Its design can range from formal to entirely natural, and it is all at once a practical swimming facility, a beautiful landscape feature, and a wildlife sanctuary. Natural swimming pools have the advantages of conventional swimming pools, but also look beautiful and respect the environment, offering a fresh and vivid display of nature in your own garden. They are the next step in man-made swimming facilities, combining design, an understanding of how ecological systems work, and the very latest in bio-technology to produce one of the most innovative and complete garden features available.

A gartenART creation in the Peloponnese, Greece

gartenART’s speciality is producing clean, clear swimming water using natural purification methods. We also carry out swimming pool conversions, and pond/lake restorations, but our main work to date has been designing and building natural swimming pools and swimming ponds from scratch – this also gives us the opportunity to carry out some fantastic designs.

What are natural swimming pools?

A natural swimming pool (or ‘natural swimming pond’ – the terms mean the same) consists of two zones – a deep, central swimming area, and a shallower surrounding area with plants which are specially chosen to purify the water.

This is the basic difference between a natural pool and a conventional swimming pool – a conventional pool uses chemicals such as chlorine to kill bacteria, whereas a natural pool cleanses the water organically. It uses the natural purifying properties of plants, as well as a small filter to extract surface debris such as leaves, and a small pump to keep the water circulating sufficiently through the planting area.

Natural swimming pools are a prime example of how we can harness nature’s intelligence efficiently. They completely eliminate the need for chemicals and constant cleaning as their biological self-cleansing processes are completely effective. Surplus nutrients and impurities, as well as harmful bacteria, are transformed by plants and natural water organisms.

A recent gartenART swimming pond in Hertfordshire

Because around half of a natural pool’s space is devoted to aquatic plants, it is as much a garden feature as a pool and can be admired year round without the need to be covered at the end of summer. It is constantly alive and evolving, changing with the seasons, and even maturing over the years, allowing the plants to grow into their habitat.

How do natural swimming pools work?

Clear, clean water is the naturally occurring state in ponds and lakes if the body of water is large enough and deep enough. Natural swimming pools are purposely built to emulate this state by using nature’s purifying properties of plants and micro-organisms to produce clear, clean and healthy swimming water.

A more conventional shaped pool in Surrey

Water is kept circulating slowly by differences in temperature in the shallower and deeper zones, and also by a small pump. When water leaves the swimming area it passes through a skimmer where any surface debris such as leaves are removed. In the plant zone (also known as the regeneration zone) the water is further cleaned through natural processes in a number of different ways. For example, in and around the roots transformation takes place on a micro-bacterial level, whereas the leaves of different plants take out different types of nutrients, important to restrict the growth of algae.

Can I convert my conventional swimming pool?

You can also convert your conventional swimming pool to a natural pool, keeping the original swimming area (or altering it if you wish) while adding a shallow plant area around it to enable natural purification of the water. Or you can keep the existing structure of the swimming pool and create the two areas inside it

Natural swimming pools have the benefits of conventional pools, with many additional advantages, for example low maintenance costs, no health risks, attractive all year round, safe and educational for children, and are uniquely designed to suit your garden and your tastes – no two natural pools are the same.

What about restoring my pond or lake?

We can also convert your pond or lake to a natural swimming pond.  This is an ideal way of keeping your existing water feature and attracting wildlife, while at the same time keeping it clean and being able to swim in it. There are two main approaches – one is to clean out the whole pond and line it, similar in many ways to building a swimming pond from scratch.

The second approach is if the pond or lake is much larger and cleaning it out and lining it is impractical and/or too costly.  In these situations we can still work with the existing structure and water body to reduce the nutrients and still produce excellent water quality.

Case Study

Are you still happy with your pond, Mrs. Bathurst?

They say enthusiasm is easy when a toy is new, but what happens when it’s two or three years old? Does a gartenART swimming pond retain is capacity to enthral? Are there unimagined drawbacks or problems that have taken time to surface?

Not for Wendy Bathurst, who has just celebrated her pond’s second anniversary, and says simply, “I wouldn’t want to be without it. The pond sits so well in its surroundings; it just blends in with the trees and plants. Whatever the season, it always looks a picture and really requires very little maintenance.

“When I open the curtains in the morning, it’s the first thing I look for because there’s always something to look at. Sometimes, there are a couple of foxes padding around the edge, sometimes a group of birds looking for insects.

” I had four great clusters of daffodils on the verges this year, and because of the water quality I’ve been able to grow some beautiful primulas. It’s different, more established now. But when I think about it, all we’ve really done since gartenART put in the swimming pond is add the flowers and a bit more gravel at the edge.

“It was made for me, dug to my height and it’s just perfect. I can stand with my head just out of the water and watch nature at work. The water feels silky. There’s no chemical smarting the eyes, and it’s as much of a joy out as in. The pond enhances the garden. You never have to cover it up and you would never want to because it’s worth looking at the whole time.”

gartenART can be contacted by calling 020 7183 3333 or by emailing the company at: info@gartenart.co.uk

© Stewart Andersen and Stewart Andersen’s Property Blog, 2009. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Stewart Andersen and Stewart Andersen’s Property Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.