page_title: Garden pond
section_title: Natural ponds and natural pools
hierarchical_section_title: Garden pond / Natural ponds and natural pools
caption_attribution_description: English: The traditional coping on this NSP pools demonstrates that natural swimming pools can be designed in many ways and do not always have to resemble natural bodies of water.
context_page_description: A garden pond is a water feature constructed in a garden or designed landscape, normally for aesthetic purposes, to provide wildlife habitat, or for swimming.
context_section_description: Ponds or swimming pools can be constructed and maintained on an organic model, sometimes called natural pools,  where the water is contained by an isolating membrane or membranes, in which no chemicals or devices that disinfect or sterilize water are used, and the water is instead cleared through use of biological filters, other organisms used in water purification, and plants rooted hydroponically in the system.
  The first such pools were built in the early 1980s in Austria, where they are known as Schwimmteiche. The first was built by Werner Gamerith in his private garden in the 1980s. The market slowly grew, and by 2016 there were around 20,000 such pools in Europe.
  The first public swimming pool in North America built and maintained in this way, was finished at Webber Park in Minneapolis in 2015.
  An organization called Die Internationale Organisation für naturnahe Badegewässer sets standards for such pools.
caption: The traditional coping on this natural swimming pool demonstrates that natural swimming pools can be designed in many ways and do not always have to resemble natural bodies of water.
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