Creating my personal natural swimming pond provided valuable insights into designing such water features for a living
In the heart of South Yorkshire, Sarah Murch and her family have transformed an old care home into a stunning, wildlife-focused haven that harmonises with the natural surroundings and reflects their passion for wild swimming.
The family's love for swimming, nurtured by holidays and trips to the Yorkshire countryside, led them to purchase the property in 2008. Over the next two years, they cleared and surveyed the land, eventually training with a professional Austrian swimming pond installer to ensure the pond's design was integrated seamlessly into the garden ecosystem and landscape.
The five-acre swimming pond sits central to a garden that includes woodland, perennial meadows, a gravel garden, a winter garden, and a formal rose garden. Each part of the garden flows out from a network of connected paths, with each segueing into another.
The pond and garden design emphasise natural elements and careful planting. Sarah prefers to plant avenues east to west to create wonderful shafts of sunlight hitting the trees in the morning and backlit grasses in the evening. The surrounding grasses and plants are positioned to be backlit by sunsets, creating a visually integrated and wildlife-friendly environment.
The swimming pond is naturally filtered by the plants in the water, while prairie planting along the side serves as a barrier to keep the water clean and catches leaf debris. A dry beach made up of a 200mm sand layer provides a unique vantage point for pond life from the dining table, and a shelter belt of 300 trees, including Pinus wallichiana and Abies sibirica, has been sited to filter the prevailing wind and avoid leaf drop into the swimming pool.
The garden's unique features continue with a grand formal rose garden south of the pool, and a gravel garden featuring Euphorbia characias subsp. wulfenii and Phlomis russeliana. An old millstone that belonged to Sarah's grandfather sits by the water's edge, with lights embedded into the surface.
Sarah emphasises the importance of not cutting back plants too early to avoid disturbing the garden's ecosystem. Water mint (Mentha aquatica) grows in abundance along the edge of the pool, releasing its fresh scent as the family dogs trample over it in summer.
Sarah Murch's garden is a testament to the beauty and harmony that can be achieved when nature and design come together. It stands as a unique and inspiring example of an eco-friendly oasis that integrates a natural swimming pond into a stunning landscape.
- The garden, a part of their home-and-garden, encompasses various landscapes such as woodlands, meadows, gravel gardens, winter gardens, and formal rose gardens.
- The five-acre swimming pond, integrated into the garden ecosystem and landscape, is naturally filtered by plants and compliments the family's love for outdoor-living and gardening.
- Sarah, with her passion for gardening, prefers to plant avenues east to west to create a visually integrated and wildlife-friendly environment, with trees casting sunlight and backlit grasses.
- The garden features unique elements, like a grand formal rose garden, a gravel garden with specific plants, an old millstone by the water's edge, and a shelter belt of trees that filter the wind and prevent leaf drop into the swimming pool.
