Water flowers, or filling with dirt? Are we talking in the ground pool, above ground, or kiddie pool?

Down the road is a water garden business in a lady's backyard. While she is building more permanent structures (block walls 2 high, with liners) she has numerous kiddie pools (rigid 2' sides with plastic liner kind) that are her 'ponds'.

I'd worry about drainage, but other than that I can't think of anything. It would certainly contain bamboo and mint (and other rhyzome spreading species) if such adornments were desired.

Ken

in the ground pool. I was also concerned about draining. she has a wooden fence around it but that is what she was thinking about doing and was wondering if it would work. I think I would make a goldfish/koi pond out of it myself. Would be sooooooo much more interesting. :)

If drainage is a concern drill holes through the bottom of the pool, it should be possible to repair these should someone wish to "exhume" the pool at a later date.

That would be pretty cool, to have a deep pool and a fairly shallow flower bed at the bottom... excellent idea. Now if I only had a pool.

12 foot diameter...30" deep..galvanised...free to a good home..or a bad home..or..or...anyone who wants it.lmao.......

My neighbor turned an inground pool into a fish pond!!! I don't know them well, but it look pretty from the street!

Lclaffy, I just emailed you regarding the pool if you are serious!!

Angie

Thank you all for the info!!! I will email this thread to her.

Hey Hortfreak - do you have a picture of your inground pool turned garden? I would love to see it.

Jill

Hi: As you can see I'm looking for good solutions to converting pools without destroying value of property.

Your idea of flower garden is an idea that many women should like. If you come across any good ideas please pass them on to my site. Thanks

If anyone has information on where is best to get liner and filter for swimming pool converstion into a water garden/Koi garden pleaseeee let me know!

I'm having a hard time finding anything at a "reasonable" cost.

Thanks for sharing with me!

I'd make it a koi pond or a water garden. If this is a built in pool you have a wonderful opportunity many of us don't. Fish are great fun and you'd have the depth and size for some beautiful koi. However there are special needs for fish which you would have to explore. Check out the gallery in ponds and you'll see how wonderful the fish and ponds can be.

Many people use cement ponds for thier fish. You didn't mention if it is fiberglass, cement, or lined. I suppose if it is blue it might look a little odd. HOWEVER: There is dye that you can add to your pond to make it glass black, or tropical blue/green. Some golf courses use it.

I've seen a strong dye solution in a pond with water lilies. It looked like they were floating on top of glass and it was absolutely gorgeous. WL's need shallow water, but you could make stands for them (If the water was black you wouldn't see them). If you are zone 8 I imagine you could grow lots of cool stuff year round.

There are many beautiful water plants that float or that one could make shelves of some sort for potted plants.

As for liner. The place to ask would be over in the pond forum. You will find a wealth of info on ponding, fish care, etc. I believe there are even some that have converted pools. Liners can be purchased and the best one is going to be spendy for a large pool,however if you don't have any leaks in the pool you could probably get away with something less expensinve. The expensive ones will last a very long time and stand up to sun too.

I assumed this is a built in pool, but if not I'd just take it down. Koi are prettiest seen from above, and a pond more enjoyable to look into IMO.

Growing up we had a large above ground pool that was 28 feet around (a big one). Dad tore it down and made a flower garden in it and it is a showcase for his flowers.

www.aqua-mart.com is the cheapest i've found!!!

Here is a wealth of information on doing this. Try to recycle a pool and save the earth at the same time.

http://www.arts4all.com/elca/

I'd like to turn my non-working, 20'x40' inground pool into a veggie garden! Holes would need to be drilled for drainage and then filled. Don't know what that would cost (anybody done this?), but know I would need lots and lots of soil because the pool is deep. Maybe one day.