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Winter 2009 newsletter - including our new "winter
collection"
Spring 2009 newsletter - a case study of one of our 2009
pools
Summer 2009 newsletter - a case
study revisited: a pool two years on
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Hello and welcome to gartenART Natural Swimming Pools. We are the leading company in the design and
construction of natural swimming pools and swimming ponds in the
UK, having built around 40 natural pools
since 2004. We also offer an
international design and consultancy service.
A
natural swimming pool/natural
swimming pond
is specifically designed so you can swim in pure,
clear water with no chemicals. Its design can range from
formal to entirely natural, and it is all at once a practical
swimming facility, a beautiful landscape feature, and a wildlife
sanctuary.
Natural swimming
pools have the advantages of conventional swimming pools, but also look
beautiful and respect the environment, offering a fresh and vivid
display of nature in your own garden. They are the next step in
man-made swimming facilities, combining design, an understanding of
how ecological systems work, and the very latest
in bio-technology to produce one
of the most innovative and complete garden features available.
Our
speciality is producing clean, clear swimming water using
natural purification methods. We also carry out
swimming pool conversions,
and pond/lake restorations, but
our main work to date has been designing and building natural
swimming pools and swimming ponds from scratch - this also gives
us the opportunity to carry out some fantastic designs.
If you are
interested in swimming in clear, soft water in your own garden,
or simply in having a beautiful garden feature all year round,
please browse our site.
In
particular we recommend visiting our
gallery and also downloading
this
slideshow which
will give you a sense of the different qualities of natural
pools we have built. Our customer testimonials
page also tells you what it is like to own a natural pool.
If you have any
questions please call us on +44 (0)20
7183 3333 or email
info@gartenart.co.uk.
For press
enquiries please call Rosie Inge of Churton Inge Associates on
+44 (0)1749 670070.
We hope you enjoy
your visit here.
What are natural swimming pools?
A natural
swimming pool (or "natural swimming pond" - the terms mean the same)
consists of two zones – a deep, central swimming area, and a shallower
surrounding area with plants which are specially chosen to purify the
water.
This is the basic
difference between a natural pool and a conventional swimming pool – a
conventional pool uses chemicals such as chlorine to kill bacteria, whereas a
natural pool cleanses the water organically. It uses the natural
purifying properties of plants, as well as a small filter
to extract surface debris such as leaves, and a small pump to keep the
water circulating sufficiently through the planting area.
Natural swimming pools
are a prime example of
how we can harness nature’s intelligence efficiently. They completely
eliminate the need for chemicals and constant cleaning as their biological self-cleansing processes
are completely effective. Surplus nutrients and impurities, as well as
harmful bacteria, are transformed by plants and natural water
organisms.
Because around
half of a natural pool's space is devoted to aquatic plants, it is as
much a garden feature as a pool and can be admired year round without
the need to be covered at the end of summer. It is constantly alive
and evolving, changing with the seasons, and even maturing over the
years, allowing the plants to grow into their habitat.
How do natural
swimming pools work?
Clear, clean water
is the naturally occurring state in ponds and lakes if the body of
water is large enough and deep enough. Natural swimming pools are purposely
built to emulate this state by using nature's purifying properties
of plants and micro-organisms to produce clear, clean and healthy
swimming water.
The water is kept
circulating slowly by differences in temperature in the shallower and
deeper zones, and also by a small pump. When water leaves the swimming
area it passes through a skimmer where any surface debris such as
leaves are removed. Then in the plant zone (also known as the
regeneration zone) the water is further cleaned through natural
processes in a number of different ways. For example in and around the
roots transformation takes place on a micro-bacterial level, whereas
the leaves of different plants take out different types of nutrients,
important to restrict the growth of algae.
Can I convert my conventional
swimming pool?
You can
also convert your conventional swimming pool to a natural pool, keeping the
original swimming area (or altering it if you wish) whilst adding a shallow plant area around it to enable natural purification
of the water. Or you can keep the existing structure of the swimming
pool and create the two areas inside it - you can see examples in our
gallery.
Natural swimming
pools have the benefits of conventional pools, with many additional
advantages, for example low maintenance
costs, no health risks, attractive all year
round, safe and
educational for children, and are uniquely designed
to suit your garden and your tastes – no two natural pools are the
same.
What about restoring my pond or
lake?
We can also
convert your pond or lake to a natural swimming pond. This is an ideal way of keeping
your
existing water feature and attracting wildlife, while at the same
time keeping it clean and being able to swim in it.
There are two
main approaches - one is to clean out the whole pond and line
it, similar in many ways to building a swimming pond from
scratch.
The second
approach is if the pond or lake is much larger and cleaning it
out and lining it is impractical and/or too costly. In
these situations we can still work with the existing structure
and water body to reduce the nutrients and still produce
excellent water quality .
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