How natural swimming pools work

Free to read: how a natural pool cleans its own water, and what to plan before you build.

We've published a free field guide to natural swimming pools.

A natural swimming pool keeps its water clean the way a healthy lake does — with plants, gravel and microscopic life instead of chlorine. A deep, plant-free swimming area gives you room to swim; a shallower, planted regeneration zone does the cleaning.

Our new field guide explains how the water cleans itself — the biofilm that does the real work, the plankton balance that keeps it clear, and the role of low-nutrient planting — then walks through the build in six steps. It is drawn from How to Build a Natural Swimming Pool by Wolfram Kircher and Andreas Thon.

Read it here: Natural swimming pools: how they work and what to plan before you build.