Swimming ponds

Principles of swimming ponds:

Swim ponds have been featured in many magazines because of the Kings Cross swimming pond development.

Swimming ponds in a garden setting:

• Use plants to keep the water clear.
• Have at least 50% of the total water area as a planted zone.
• Create bacterial conditions in the planting area among the plant roots to help cleanse the water.
• Encourage micro-organisms like water fleas to thrive.
• Do not use chemicals or chlorine.
• Bring the swimmer closer to nature.
• Encourages many species of wildlife creatures to colonise this new garden habitat.
• Monitor children near deep water as the young are instinctively drawn to water.
• Enables supervised children to see nature close up
• Exclude fish and ducks from your swimming pond. Both create high levels of nutrient and bring a risk of unhealthy impurities.
• Allow 'swimming ponds' to fit into the garden. Formal 'swimming pools'  look like a separate, functional part of the garden.
• Can be a safety hazard for children.

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  Swim pond (telegraph.co.uk)

  

  Mature area of pond planting

  
  

Constructing a swimming pond:

• Usually built by specialist swimming pond contractors.
• Create a deep area for swimming (1.8m/6ft - 2.4m/8ft deep).
• Create a separate area for the plants of a shallower depth - called a regeneration zone.
• Separate the 2 areas by a barrier that allows the water to flow across the top of the barrier between the 2 areas.
• This barrier should not allow materials like gravel to spill from the planting zone into the swimming zone.
• Install a circulatory pump system to keep the water moving.
• Include a biological filter unit.

  

  swimming pond construction before liner added

  

  swim pond, stream and plant shelf & walkway

  
  

  

  Planting shelf area

  

  Winter view showing change of water levels

  
  

Planting swimming ponds:

Densely plant with a range of aquatic plants. Use submerged oxygenator plants, waterlilies, floating plants, shallow marginals, deep marginals, bog and waterside species.

• Use both indigenous Native plants that grow vigorously and include Non-Native ornamental varieties.
  
• Non-Natives will increase the range of colour and flower type and extend the season of interest.
• They also lengthen the period of active nutrient usage in the planted regeneration zone.
• Aim for 6-9 plants per m2 of shallow shelf planting area to start with.
• Add 1 waterlily at a deeper depth of planting every 2m of shelf length. 
• Have a mix of upright and rafting plants growing on the shelf area
• Use more uprights than rafting plants as waterlilies will add to the rafting effect of foliage in the water.

The shelf upright plants favoured for a swimming pond are:

• British Native - upright plants - Cyperus longus,  Iris pseudacorus (Yellow Flag Iris), Butomus umbellatus, Alisma plantago-aquatica, Lythrum salicaria, Caltha palustris, Carex acutiformis
• Non Native tall plants - other Iris  - versicolor, versicolor Mysterious Monique and louisiana Black Gamecock, Acorus gramineus Ogon, Anemopsis californica, Caltha palustris Stagnalis, Pontederia cordata, Pontederia cordata albiflora(white) and taller Pontederia cordata lancifolia, Typha lugdunensis

Plants to grow as horizontal spreaders:

• Rafting plants that grow out across the water surface - Myosotis scorpioides (blue or white), Veronica beccabunga, Mentha aquatica, Myriophyllum Red Stem, Oenanthe javanica Flamingo
• Deep water plants give surface cover and put shade across the pond surface. Pond Waterlilies (any colour) and Aponogeton distachyos.
• Oxygenating plants with surface spread - Myriophyllum Red Stem.

We have created a Pond Planting Scheme for Swimming Ponds:

• Containing a balanced selection of good filtration plants chosen by us for swimming ponds.
• The scheme is based on a 10m2 planting area.
• Please feel free to email or call us for a personalised quote. Please include a photo and measurements of your design to help us.