Natural Swimming Pond

Using a design by the legendary David Pagan Butler, to create a small swimming pond in this South Devon garden. After the design was adjusted to fit the clients needs and the site, we built the pool and an overflow dry pond to prevent overflow runoff into the neighbouring field. It has a shallow, 2 foot deep zone for little ones to swim in, as well as a 7 foot deep zone to plunge into. The pool is fed by rain collected from the garage roof and occasionally topped up with carbon filtered tap water if there is a hot and dry spell. The filtration system uses an aquarium air pump positioned at the end of a maze of perforated pipes that run through the roots of the pond plants, to thoroughly filter the pool in the gentlest way possible. As an alternative to impeller pumps, this helps preserve the more delicate pond life. The root zone filtration system is complimented by an air pump driven, floating biofiltration skimmer, named the ‘olive’. We used local sweet chestnut posts and paling for the fence, reclaimed oak sleepers as edging & steps and local sawn oak for the jetty. The pond plants were sourced from Devon pond Plants.