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Once upon a time, my wife and I had an acre of land. It was a nightmare to take care of and not very often used. I thought a swimming pool would be a great way to take advantage of all that unused space. What I didn’t want was all the maintenance that comes with them. Filtering, pH balance, chlorine, draining it, shocking it, etc. What if there was a pool that did all that largely by itself and also didn’t use any harmful chemicals? In my research for just such a thing I came across an innovation in pool construction that really intrigued me.
There has been a big trend in Europe toward natural pools or swimmable ponds. Considered safer for the body and skin, more enviromentally friendly and in general more beautiful than traditional swimming pools. These natural pools use native aquatic plantlife to filter the water and make it suitable for swimming. No filter or pump needed!
They come in a variety of designs and styles and you can add basically anything a pool has to them. They can be made as walk in with a beach area or with a stair or slide entry or even a trampoline entry as pictured above. Usually they have an area that’s separate from the swimming area for the regeneration of the water. This is where the plants will be located. Think of this as the pool’s filter. One particularly interesting feature, is that if you live in a cold enough climate, the water will freeze just like any other pond and turn it into your very own ice skating rink!
If you’d like to learn more about them here is a good starting point:
