A small formal pool in a courtyard or near the house can be quite easy and inexpensive to construct. Most of the traditional style formal pools have a symmetrical design, although I feel it’s just as attractive to choose a more unusual shape.

To grow water plants such as water lilies, you will need your pool to be 60cm deep, as well as being located in an open sunny position.
 
The construction materials for a traditional formal pool can be concrete, brick, or a combination of brick and concrete, rendered with a sand cement mortar to which a waterproofing compound has been added. To prevent water over flowing from the pool, or the inflow of dirt from the surrounding landscape into the pool, it’s advisable to build up the edge of the pool slightly.

Informal pools can be built from a wide range of materials for instance, prefabricated fibreglass, concrete, rubber liners and thick plastic sheeting. Ideally the pool should look as natural as possible, and this can be achieved by avoiding symmetrical shapes and by surrounding the pool with weathered rocks and overhanging plants.

For a more ‘natural’ feel, locate your pool at the lowest point in the garden, where it would occur in nature.

It’s also important during the planning stage of a pool, waterfall or stream, to keep a natural relationship between the sizes of each component. A large waterfall cascading into a tiny pool, or a very large pool fed by a tiny waterfall, never creates a believable balance. Also the plants surrounding the pool should not be to overpowering. Your plants should compliment your water feature, not hide it from view.

Fountains are popular additions to both formal and informal pools. A fountain requires plumbing and an electric pump to keep the water moving, and the easiest and most reliable way of adding a fountain to your water feature is to buy a complete kit from a nursery or water garden specialist.

There are classical styles, or small figurines to suit a wide range of tastes, and are excellent for providing water movement for an otherwise static pool. A small submersible pump should be all that’s required to provide the fountains spray.

Prefabricated fibreglass pools are ideal for small to medium size gardens. They are strong but lightweight, and most specialist nurseries stock a wide range of shapes and sizes in kit form. You can also purchase small streams and waterfalls to create a more elaborate design. The molded fibreglass is finished to look as natural as possible, and the secret is to surround the pool with natural rocks and plant overhanging species to soften the outline.

Sometimes fibreglass pools are used indoors as a feature but this can look contrived and unnatural, whereas in the garden, in the right setting, they can look marvellous.

To install a fibreglass pool, first excavate a hole that is large enough to cradle the pool, allowing for a bed of sand that is at 5-10cm deep.

It’s important to ensure the bed of sand is as smooth as possible and that rocks and stones have been removed from underneath.

When positioning the pool make sure it’s level, and pack any gaps left underneath with sand, to provide additional support, when the pool is full of water.

Fill the pool and allow to settle before landscaping the surrounds, it’s best to wait until after a heavy rainfall, which should cause your pool to settle into a final position.

Once the pool has settled you can landscape around the pool with overlapping rocks that slightly overhang the edge if possible.

Plant with a range of ground covering and trailing plants that enjoy poolside conditions. It's amazing how natural pre-fabricated pools can look if they have been installed with attention to the finer details of landscaping.

All the best and Happy Gardening

Erin Taylor

Landscape Designer for

www.antspants.biz