From Pool to Pond

I came across a really interesting webpage this morning during a random StumbleUpon session.

It describes the conversion of a 24′ x 16′ x 7′ swimming pool into a beautiful backyard pond - undertaken by Erik Kilk shortly after moving into his new home in Portland Oregon.

It’s not every day you hear about someone doing something like this, so the article certainly caught my attention and made me want to read more.

As much as I enjoy a nice swim on a hot summer day, the idea of having my own chlorinated swimming pool has never really appealed to me. Aside from being an artificial eye sore in general, I just don’t like the idea of using all those chemicals and potentially a fair amount of power as well.

I do however love the idea of natural swimming pools - something I hadn’t even really thought about until I came across the “Bio Pool” at John Todd Ecological Design.

But before I get sidetracked…

Here are some exerpts from Erik Kilk’s page:

The pond took me about five months of pacing myself to complete. I worked about an hour every few days, along with maybe an extra effort every couple of weekends. My goal was to fill the pond and get the flower beds planted in January. This allowed me to get pretty winter plants (so the pond would look nice in the winter). It also allowed the water to acclimate before things warmed up in spring and summer.

…

I used four truck loads of dirt, 400 sandbags, and countless hours of wheel barreling to fill in the swimming pool. Sandbags were used to help build multiple levels of pond depth. As I approached the height I wanted, I took my time and made sure I was making a perfectly level sandbag top edge. In the picture above the outer ring of sandbags is the edge of the pond (to be covered with rock). The dirt remaining to the edge of the swimming pool will become flower beds.

…

I was very concerned about having such a huge amount of water go bad on me that I planned on a pond filter. I didn’t want a huge ugly algae mess. I spent considerable time researching filters. On my previous home’s pond, a smaller typical yard pond, I built it like an aquarium — with an underground gravel filter with PVC pipe running through it. It worked fantastic and I had perfectly clear water for years. But someone warned me it will be hard to clean. So this time I used the same principle (since it worked so well the first time) but I built it external to the pond. In addition I had now learned about the vegi-filter concept which incorporated plants.

Needless to say, you really need to check out the full article yourself - the story wasn’t featured in ‘Better Homes and Gardens’ for nothing!

Here is the link: Erik’s Swimming Pool to Pond Conversion

The pictures alone are worth the visit!
I love his biofilter design - what a fantastic (natural) way to keep your pond water clean and clear!

I get the impression that Erik’s pond was created more for aesthetic garden appeal than to serve as a swimming hole, but reading the article certainly rekindled my interest in the ‘natural swimming pool’ concept.

I found a really interesting webpage on the subject (again, with great photos) at TotalHabitat.com

Have you ever seen how many pounds of chemicals go into a typical swimming pool? Have you ever read the warning labels on the chemicals used to sterilize typical swimming pools? The basic pHilosopHy behind water quality in a typical swimming pool is to kill everything short of killing the swimmer. There is another way.

Visualize this: you are lazily floating, toes up, in a pond of sparkling clear running water, surrounded by wild grasses. Hummingbirds land on nearby trumpet flowers and the scent of jasmine and mint is in the air. Is this a dream or some mid-life fantasy? Neither. You may just be part of a new trend in swimming the natural way -without chlorine or other harsh chemicals in the water.

Sounds pretty awesome to me! If I ever decide to build a pool, this would definitely be the route I would want to go.

Technorati Tags: swimming pool, natural swimming pool, pond, garden pond, chlorine, water pump, biofilter, algae, bio pool

Written by Bentley on April 16th, 2007 with 2 comments.
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