Hello and welcome to our autumn newsletter!

In this newsletter I want to tell you about a new type of natural swimming pool we have recently started designing and building.

When we started out 6 years ago we used to tell people they needed at least 100sqm of water surface area for their swimming pond, of which at least 50% had to be the planting area, for the natural biological processes in the pond to work effectively and keep the water clean. 

But times, and technology, have changed...

THE SECOND WAVE OF NATURAL SWIMMING POOLS

In summer 2008 we were asked to build a natural pool at Foxhills Hotel and Resort in Surrey, as part of a formal design with as small a filtration area as possible, and to achieve this we had to change our approach.

We worked with a German company, Polyplan, to install a system with a filtration area only 20% the size of the total water surface area.  The system works by filtering the water through a highly effective absorption material which keeps the nutrients in the water very low.  This, in addition to the natural biological processes which still take place, ensure that the water has remained crystal-clear and algae-free since day one.
		Natural pool at Foxhills, Surrey, built by gartenART, 2008

Polyplan lead the international swimming pond community in the development and application of new technology for both residential and large public natural swimming pools.  These days most natural pool companies in Germany and Austria have progressed to using absorption methods rather than relying purely on biological activity, and we have also rolled out this technology to all our new installations as of July this year.

This new technology gives us considerable flexibility.  We have just completed a 500sqm lake conversion, and our remaining two projects in 2009 are both informal "traditional swimming pond" designs with large planting areas, while still using the new system - look out for these in future newsletters. 

However this month's case study is a pool conversion with similar proportions to the pool at Foxhills, and which shows again how a natural pool can now fit in a formal contemporary garden as well as more natural settings.

CASE STUDY - SIMON AND LESLEY WOOD

When Simon and Lesley Wood were planning the garden of their Orpington home they made the centrepiece a beautifully landscaped Koi Carp pool – then watched in despair as, within months, it turned into a “green soup”…

		More in hope than anticipation, they went to the Grand Designs Exhibition at Easter and came back with a solution as unexpected, he says, as it was effective. “I had never heard of gartenART before, and not specifically about natural swimming ponds. When we saw the gartenART stand and met Tim Evans, I thought ‘this sounds good’. We had been thinking about filling in the pool but talking to Tim changed our minds; it crystallised our desire to get it right.”
By the end of July, they had got it right: planned, built and handed over with a new filtration system which requires only 20% of the total water surface area. “We are very happy with the result,” Simon says. “The plants are still young but there is already a lot of lovely growth and variation. What’s more it works; the water is beautifully clear."
		“Our key goal was to clean up the water, and we’ve achieved that, plus we wanted plants and flowers to break up the formal, hard landscaping, and we’ve got that.” The pond is a real talking-point for visitors. “People are genuinely fascinated by how something so visually pleasing can work so well. It’s so much nicer than a pool; there are no nasty smells, and real pleasure to be had from seeing the plantings mature, fill out and change shape and colour with the seasons.”

Please see our gallery for more photos, and you can also read several more customer testimonials.  You may also be interested to download our PDF brochure.

We have a couple of construction slots still available in the winter/spring months, so if you would like to be swimming in your natural pool by next summer please contact us as soon as possible on 020 7183 3333 or email info@gartenart.co.uk.

With best wishes,

Tim Evans