Ben Law's Organic Pool and wildlife hide, West Sussex, UK.

This is Ben Law's organic pool in Prickly Nut Wood near Lodsworth in West Sussex, UK. Ben's home (below) is a roundwood sweet chestnut cruck frame with barley straw bale and wattle & daub walls and a roof of handmade Cedar shingles. Just a stone's throw from his home, Ben has created a beautiful wildlife pond that doubles up as an off-grid water storage.

At 2m (6 feet) deep the pond is also a swimming pool. The timbers deep in the water are Larch roundwood which will last many years like the Larch pile foundations of Venice, Italy. The pool is based on a design by David Butler. David explains how a natural pool stays clear without maintenance in video No.1 above. In video No.2 David and Ben give you a tour of Ben's pool. The small curved shelter, used for watching wildlife, is made from naturally curved larch with smaller diameter sweet chestnut to support a sedum green roof.

The nutrient level in the pool is carefully restricted so competition for nutrients, usually phosphorous, is fierce. In these circumstances pond plants outperform algae, keeping them suppressed and restricted to the edges of the pool. A pond low in nutrients is a healthy environment for wildlife. If an alien micro-organism, a human pathogen for instance, enters the water, it faces an army of hungry pond dwelling micro-organisms to either starve it out of existence, or devour it. A water analysis of David's organic pond water showed that it contained zero organisms of escherichia coli (e. coli) making it suitable for drinking. Ben says,

"Utilising ceramic air stones and plants for filtration the quality of the water is crystal clear. Newts and whirlygig beetles, dragonflies and bats at dusk make the swimming experience a wildlife adventure."

Learn how to design the structure, build the swimming area, fit a liner, plant the edges and make a simple solar powered pump in this DVD.