Swimming ponds

Principles of swimming ponds

Popular because of the Kings Cross swimming pond these have been featured in magazines recently

Swimming ponds in a garden setting:

• Use plants to keep the water clear
• Have at least 50% of your total water area as a planted zone
• Create bacterial conditions in the planting area among the plant roots to help cleanse the water. Useful micro organisms like water fleas also thrive.
• Do not use chemicals or chlorine
• Brings the swimmer closer to nature
• Encourages many species of wildlife creature to colonise this new garden habitat.
• Exclude fish and ducks from your swimming pond as both create high levels of nutrient and bring a risk of unhealthy impurities
• Allow ‘swimming pools’ to fit into the garden rather than looking like a separate, functional item in the garden 
• Can be a safety hazard for children and should be monitored carefully. Deep water in the swimming area is hazardous for the young who are instinctively drawn to water.
• On the upside children can see nature close up if they are supervised.

Constructing a swimming pond

• Usually built by specialist swimming pond contractors.
• Create a deep area for swimming (at least 2.4m = 8ft deep) with one liner 
• Create a separate area for the plants of a shallower depth that has its own liner – called 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 but not to allow materials like soil to spill from the planting zone into the swimming zone
• Contain a circulatory pump system to keep the water on the move around the system which could include a biological filter unit.

Planting a swimming pond

A range of aquatic plants are densely planted – submerged oxygenators, waterlilies, floating plants, shallow marginals, deep marginals, bog and waterside species.

• It is good to use indigenous Native plants as they are most adapted to our climates and grow vigorously but ornamental varieties can also be included.
• These will increase the range of colour and flower type and extend the season of interest and the period of active nutrient usage in the regeneration zone.
• Aim for at least 9 plants per m2 of planting area.

The shelf plants favoured for a swimming pond are:

• British Native – tall and structural – Cyperus longus,  Iris pseudacorus (Yellow Flag Iris), Butomus umbellatus, Alisma plantago-aquatica, Lythrum salicaria, Caltha palustris, Carex riparia and Schoenoplectus lacustris
• Non Native plants – other Iris  – pseudacorus, versicolor and louisiana Black Gamecock, Pontederia cordata, Anemopsis californica, Typha lugdunensis
• Rafting plants that grow out across the water surface – Myosotis scorpioides (blue or white), Veronica beccabunga, Mentha aquatica, Oenanthe javanica Flamingo or Menyanthes trifoliata
• Deep water plants to give surface cover and put shade across the pond surface and submerged plant growth are also essential:
• Oxygenators – Ceratophyllum demersum, Myriophyllum spicatum, Potamogeton crispus
• Waterlilies (any colour) and Aponogeton distachyos.

British Native structural plants suggested:

Non Native structural plants:

Rafting plants:

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