How to Build a Natural Swimming Pool

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PREPARE FOR PLANTING

Once your pool is constructed, you'll need to prepare the plant zone with 3 to 6 inches of soil. Choose your soil with care as soil can carry various contaminants. Avoid harvesting soil from areas where animal excrement is prevalent, such as in dog runs or from grazing areas. Select soil that's free of organic matter, which would rot underwater. You can have a lab test soil samples for potentially pathogenic bacteria. To find a laboratory in your area, contact your state's health department. once soil, gravel and hardware are in place, you can fill the pool. Disturb the soil as little as possible and let the pool rest for a week before installing plants. During this time, you can test your hardware to make sure it works.

SELECTING PLANTS

Be sure to choose plants suited to your climate. Your best bet is to obtain your plants from a native-plant supplier. Check the phone book and Internet for local sources. Home and garden centers also carry more aquatic plants now that backyard ponds are growing in popularity. End-of-the-season sales can save you money. Several mail-order nurseries also specialize in water-garden plants. (See "Pool Construction and Design.")

Sedges (Carex) and rushes (Scirpus), both aquatic plants, make great emergent vegetation for your pool's perimeter. You can also consider lesser cattails (Typha angustifolia) and aquatic irises, though be sure to ask which varieties won't overcrowd other plants. Pickerel weed (Pontederia cordata), arrowhead (Sagittaria) and water primroses (Ludwigia) are all contenders for the shallowest areas of your pool. Be sure to include submergent plants such as common waterweed (Elodea) and hornwort (Ceratophyllum) for their high oxygen output.

In water 6 to 18 inches deep, plant a mix of floating, submergent and emergent plants. Water lilies (Nymphaea) adapt to any depth, so use them liberally. Floaters, such as pondweeds (Potamogeton) and common duckweed (Lemna minor), drift freely on the surface and quickly cover the surface of the plant zone.

Before you make plans to tromp off to the nearest country pond and gather up a truckload of greenery, wait! Before collecting a single plant from the wild, know the laws protecting wetlands and their plants. if you do collect, be careful to guarantee the health of the wetlancl by selecting only a few samples from larger populations. Consider rescuing plants from a threatened site. Perhaps a new corporate headquarter's construction is going to destroy your favorite frog hollow. Contact the company to see if it will allow you to rescue the imperiled plants and maybe a few amphibians.

Once you've purchased your plants, you can plant them in the filled pool. Stick to a plan, grouping plants according to height and type. Place your plants into the soil, anchoring them, with plenty of gravel.

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