Natural swimming ponds

[DaisyBD]

I'm becoming obsessed. I dream about swimming ponds - literally dream about them - and I can't think of anything in the world that I would like more (in house/garden terms that is).

However. They cost ££££££££ - on average between £60k and £80k. I have been reading up on how to build your own. I do think, how hard can it be? Much harder than building an ordinary pond? I'd have thought easier than building a swimming pool because you wouldn't have to build the straight walls. More dig a big hole - two big holes in fact, one for swimming and one for filtration - line it properly, install a pump and plant it up.

Has anyone done this? Or knows anyone who's done this? Or even any experience of swimming ponds? At the moment I do all my swimming in a local pond in the woods, but after a summer of not much rain it's getting smaller and smaller, and there's quite often people fishing there too and I feel self-conscious. Plus it's 16 minutes' walk away. I dream of being able to walk outside the back door and drop into a magical watery underworld.

[mothermirth]

Are you me?

I dream of living somewhere with a stream in the garden so I can create a swimming pool. Meanwhile, I spend all my spare time seeking out secluded swimming spots.

[Humuhumunukunukuapuaa]

God I love them. I've got a Pinterest board dedicated to them

But alas I live in a suburban terrace :(

[DaisyBD]

We don't actually have room for one in our present house, I'm putting together my five-year-plan. The next house MUST have space for one, it's at the top of my list.

[GibberTheMonkey]

I may have pinned a few too
I saw a lovely one the other day where there was a completely clear part for swimming and all the plants were in another area. No worry about weeds around your ankle

[EastwickWitch]

My neighbours have got one. it has some special filtration system with lots of plants around the edge. It looked like something from a dream when it first went in.

2 years later its covered in green slime. The cesspit looks more inviting.

[Humuhumunukunukuapuaa]

Oh how disappointing

[flow4]

I had a real pond 10 mins walk from my last house. Now it's 10 mins drive! :)
What keeps natural ponds clean is running water, in and out - even a trickle will do. I don't think any filtration system would keep a pond healthy without that.
Do you lot know about the wild swim map for finding swimming spots?! :)

[Liara]

I seriously looked into it for our current house, as we are trying to do everything in an eco-friendly way. In the end decided against it for the following reasons, which I felt made it less ecological than an ordinary pool with an eco-friendly cleaning system:

1. It has to be about 3 times as large, so water evaporation is huge, and needs to be topped up very regularly
   
2. It still needs to have a pump running near constantly to keep the water circulating through the filtration areas, so there is no significant saving in electricity
   
3. If it starts to go wrong, and the plant balance goes awry, it can be very, very hard to rectify (as demonstrated by eastwickwitch's neighbours)
   

I decided an ordinary swimming pool plus a smaller pond would be more eco-friendly after all.

[DaisyBD]

That's interesting Liara - I haven't heard about the balance going awry. How is a conventional swimming pool more eco-friendly? (I'm not doubting you, btw, just interested). You still need a pump, and loads of chemicals too.

I'd love to build an eco-house - in theory anyway, not sure I could actually cope with living in a caravan for 18 months as grand designers seem to.

[Liara]

Daisy, you can have a variable flow pump which uses less energy (and because it is smaller less water has to be pumped) and a pretty much chemical-free cleaning system. By having a smaller surface area than a swimming pond evaporation is less significant, too, so less water is used to top up.

Having a smaller pond mainly for wildlife alongside (without a pumping system) makes the whole thing more eco-friendly imo.

It's not as eco-friendly as not having a pool at all, of course, but it minimises the damage.

[Liara]

We haven't lived in a caravan for 18 months, btw, we've been living in a building site for 8 years instead .