Natural Swimming Pool
The owners of this 3-acre property, situated less than 10 minutes from the urban core of Victoria, BC, wanted a backyard swimming pool. Instead of your conventional pool, the professionals at Acacia Landscape Inc. created what feels like a hidden freshwater lake nestled in a west coast forest.
Fir trees tower overhead, and you quickly become aware of the song birds singing and a waterfall. There is a large dock that invites you to stop and enjoy the waterfall you can see that is skillfully aligned to this viewing platform. The waterfall beckons, and you are drawn along the pathway that leads you across a little footbridge and up to the lower falls that invite you to cross on the strategically placed rocks that are part of the view that dams the flow to create a cold pool complete with seating benches above.
The views from here across the pond and back towards the house and dock are breathtaking and as you walk further along the pond edge trail you can look down into the pond to enjoy the regenerative plantings that help clean the water by removing the nutrients from the water and shading its surface. You also become aware of moving shadows and colour as fish explore the pond shelf and feed on the ponds bounty.
The pond is 12 feet deep allowing bathers to dive off the dock and the diving rock opposite, and then swim to a sunning rock out in the middle of the pond that measures more than 6 feet across and sits 1 inch above the water surface. From this rock one can lounge and take in the view of the two-tier waterfall that spills into the larger pond below and in fact swimmers can sit underneath the cascading curtain of water. Not only can this pond be enjoyed during the day but at night as well as there is ambient light along the pathways and dock edges, and even moonlighting from the large trees above that give the pond a magical feel. On top of all this you as the bather are swimming in a body of water that is naturally fed and cleaned by Mother Nature and has no added chemicals to irritate your skin and cost you an arm and a leg in maintenance fees.
This is only one of two purpose-built natural swimming pools in Canada, and the owners know that the pond as it matures along with all the plantings in and around, and it will only get better over time and make this spot even more of a hidden oasis.
