Turning a Swimming Pool into Natural Pond | Irene Anderson

Tired of dealing with a swimming pool? See how this family turned their Wimberley pool into a native habitat pond. Irene Anderson and husband John McMillan worked with their children to transform a chemical maintenance-hound into a natural home for wildlife of all kinds. Irene, partner with her son Chris Smartt at Sol'stice Garden Design in Dripping Springs, planted its borders with native and adapted drought-tough plants to attract even more wildlife. Chris sprinkles hand-made art throughout to enhance the total outdoor experience all year.

[@robertaxqijg2518]

i feel ya sister and i am there ! ready to back fill. i used to use food grade peroxide for cleaning my pool and then that factory closed down so my pool has been an abyss ever since. thank you for sharing.

[@Maxkil]

no complaints from the cat

[@texgking9308]

what size pump (gallons per hour) do you have running the water fall. I assume that is the only pump in your pond. Great idea, looks wonderful.

[@deezie78]

absolutely fabulous***

[@en8718]

thank you for sharing and congratulations

[@BeautifuLakesStreamsBiologists]

These sorts of projects can also be designed to be crystal clear without the brownish hue to the water. Natural lazy rivers can also be integrated.

[@debrabelton3161]

How would you go about it? Any insights?

[@stak235]

How do you filter the pond water? I am attempting making a similar pool pond, but my water seems to be a bit more green with algae. From the video you water looked a somewhat clearer than mine.

[@jamez3465]

getcha some nerite snails

[@fishmanroly7450]

@@jamez3465 good thing about nerites they won't reproduce in freshwater so no 🐌 overload

[@troothhertz6297]

How do u deal with mosquitos?

[@francus7227]

Mosquitoes like stagnate water. The fountain, combined with fish eating larva, is enough.

[@sarahhopegoss2675]

Did you have to drain the pool to convert to a pond?

[@shreddingthegnar]

I clean swimming pools for a living. The main idea is to get rid of debris and any type of chlorine you’ve been adding. If it’s a salt pool for sure drain it per local ordinance. Once you notice algae blooms and water bugs starting to pop up the waters ready for fish and plant life.

[@foobarmaximus3506]

You can just wait a while for the bugs and frogs to show up. Those chemicals will go away in time. We let ours sit for ... a long time. lol Couple of years. Now it's perfect and will grow anything we put in there.

[@SvayaG]

​@@foobarmaximus3506I'm looking into doing this with our out of service pool, it hasn't worked in a few years. We have a lot of sludge on the bottom, do I need to get rid of it or is it beneficial? We have toads that come use our pool from time to time but other then water bugs we don't have much else, I thought about adding some goldfish and plants

[@deanfirnatine7814]

They need to make that "waterfall" look more natural

[@shelbybublitz5825]

Nice pond, but that cat!

[@SimoneOconnell]

lol I have a pond and all i want is a pool.

[@foobarmaximus3506]

You can have mine - and turn it back into a pool. All you need is a half-million bucks, and another 500 or so per month to keep it treated and clean.

[@louiseeckert1574]

🦘

[@foobarmaximus3506]

Once the kids were grown, the pool turned into an alligator. Hundreds per month just to keep it clear. No, hell no.

[@owljones3389]

Why are they so freaked out about going fishing - for whatever reason? SMH at people now. wow

[@francus7227]

Who's freaked out? What I heard..... They took the kids to a small natural pond. Caught fish (bream and sunfish) and carefully relocated them to this pond.

[@thenaturalswimmingpondco.1883]

Nothing natural looking on this one

[@colleb95]

99% of ponds were actually swimming pools and a pond built is 1%. 😂