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How to get rid of a disused swimming pool

I have an old disused pool - Not a lot of money to spend on it but it is an eyesore.   It holds c.10,000 gallons of water when full.  Any ideas?  It is not something I have ever seen featured on a TV prog..

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Posts

  • LynLyn Posts: 23,190

    Sunken garden?  I'd  love one of those.

    image

    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • LiriodendronLiriodendron Posts: 8,328

    What a fab idea, Lyn!  Obviously Sally would need to break up the base sufficiently for the rain to drain out properly, otherwise it might turn back into a swimming pool...

    Since 2019 I've lived in east Clare, in the west of Ireland.
  • nutcutletnutcutlet Posts: 27,445

    At Kathy Brown's garden in Bedfordshire, scene of a forum group visit a few years ago

    http://kathybrownsgarden.homestead.com/PIT_landscape_low_IMG_9288.jpg



    In the sticks near Peterborough
  • IamweedyIamweedy Posts: 1,364

    The sunken garden looks good, but whatever you have to do will be expensive.

    Kathy Browns idea is lovely,  about the only possibility without spending a fortune. 

    It would still depend on the watertable though. When I lived in an area called Clayhall on the edge of Essex gravel pits, after a lot of rain  the water table was about four inches below the soil.

    I now  live on an area of deep very sandy soil.




    'You must have some bread with it me duck!'

  • LiriodendronLiriodendron Posts: 8,328

    I don't think it would necessarily be all that expensive, Iamweedy, if Sally is creative and can do most of the work herself; it took me 7 or 8 years to get all the levels sorted out and hard landscaping done in my own garden (and I'm a short, not very fit, oldish woman!).  The stone for steps and terraces was free, either dug up in the garden, old stone slates from repairing the roof, or scrounged from the builders along the road who were taking out a chimney.  Gravel and wood can be sourced reasonably cheaply if you know where to go.  

    You're right about the water table though.  Perhaps digging a pit next to the pool, to the pool's depth, would give an idea of whether it will be a problem or not.

    Since 2019 I've lived in east Clare, in the west of Ireland.
  • Many thanks for your ideas - please keep them coming.   Not sure how to check the water table - from photo it shows line of before and after heavy rainfall but I assume until the base is broken it is difficult to tell.?   The water in the pic. is about a foot deep in shallows to about 18"

    This is on a hillside in south Herefordshire   I stay here because I have a wonderful view - but as you see - the old pool is an eyesoreimage

     

  • LiriodendronLiriodendron Posts: 8,328

    Mmm.  That's quite deep and narrow...

    You could turn it into a huge bog garden...  do you know anyone wanting to get rid of rubble and then topsoil?

    Since 2019 I've lived in east Clare, in the west of Ireland.
  • LoxleyLoxley Posts: 5,698

    Maybe it has a drain in the bottom somewhere?

    "What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour". 
  • Koi pond?

  • At Highgrove Garden - Prince Charles converted his swimming pool into a sunken garden. It works really well as the old pool provides shelter, and he chose to theme it with tropical plants and moroccan style tiles. Pots etc all add to the discovery of an oasis of tranquility.

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