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Rachel Platt Garden Design turned an underused South Buckinghamshire garden into a year-round outdoor space centered on an unheated natural swimming pool. The redesign also retains existing features and adds a chalk meadow, edible hedge and productive kitchen garden; the owners report that wildlife including dragonflies, bats, frogs and newts uses the site.
Designer Rachel Platt has reshaped an underused garden in South Buckinghamshire into an outdoor retreat built around an unheated natural swimming pool, with planting and habitats intended to support wildlife as well as everyday use. The project answers the owners’ request for a garden where they could swim, grow food and spend more time outside while linking the property to the fields and hedgerows nearby.
The owners, who both work in the veterinary sector, previously drove elsewhere to swim and spent relatively little time in their own garden, according to the project account published by Homes and Gardens. Their brief asked for a biodiverse landscape that could also accommodate swimming, food-growing and entertaining. The design changes from more defined geometry close to the house to softer curves, a sweeping chalk meadow and an edible hedge toward the fields.
At the center is an unheated natural pool designed with Ellicar Natural Pools. It has a clear swimming area and a separate planted regeneration zone, where aquatic plants provide what the report describes as hydrobotanical filtration. Shoreline and deeper-water planting includes water mint, water forget-me-nots, flag irises, marsh marigolds, water plantain and arrowhead. The design report says the plants provide seasonal flowers and habitat, including stems that emerging dragonflies can climb.
The project also keeps parts of the earlier garden. The existing terrace and two ponds were retained, and planting including the owners’ fig tree, lily of the valley, raspberries and rhubarb was saved or relocated. Beyond the pool, the plan includes a raised kitchen garden, a grapevine pergola, a firepit with boulder seating and an outdoor shower. The edible hedge combines hazel, hawthorn, blackberry, chokeberry, damson, pear and serviceberry, linking the garden’s productive areas with the meadow.
A Garden Built for Daily Use
The redesign matters because it treats a private garden as both a place to spend time and a connected habitat, rather than choosing between recreation and wildlife. The pool gives the owners a swimming space at home, while its planted regeneration zone and retained ponds form part of the wider landscape. The report says the owners have seen dragonflies and bats around the pool, and frogs, toads and newts reproducing in the ponds.
Those observations come from the owners and project account, not from an independent ecological survey. Still, the choices described show how the garden’s uses overlap: the meadow is left uncut over winter to provide seeds and shelter, while the hedge offers blossom, fruit and structure. The kitchen garden and preserved fruit plants support food-growing; the firepit and seating give the household places to gather. The reported outcome is a more regularly used garden designed around both human activity and wildlife.
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Why the Pool Changed Shape
The pool’s final circular form was not the original plan. Platt’s initial concept used a formal linear pond, positioned to reflect a mature birch tree visible from the kitchen and living area. Existing drainage and a suspected utility service crossing the garden prompted a redesign, according to the project account. The source does not say whether the service was confirmed or provide technical details about the change.
The wider layout also reflects the owners’ wish for a gradual connection to the surrounding landscape. Stronger lines near the house give way to softer planting and meadow toward the fields. Existing features were retained where possible for their environmental value and personal meaning, while autumn color and texture were also part of the brief. The report names ornamental grasses, perennials and shrubs selected to add seasonal structure.
““The garden has become a haven, a place to find balance and feel miles away from everything… And our natural pond is a total escape all through the seasons.””
— The garden’s owners, quoted by Homes and Gardens
Ecological Results Not Independently Measured
The published account does not give the project’s completion date, the garden’s size, construction costs or a detailed maintenance plan for the natural pool. It also does not quantify wildlife activity or describe any independent ecological monitoring. Claims about animals using the garden are attributed to the owners, and the account provides no baseline for comparing wildlife before and after the redesign.
The reason for changing the pool from a linear concept is described as existing drainage and a suspected utility service, but the source does not confirm what utility was involved or how the final design addressed it. It is also unclear how often the owners swim in winter or what water temperatures they experience; the pool is described as unheated, but no operating details are provided.
Seasonal Use and Garden Care
The source does not announce a follow-up, evaluation or further construction phase. The design’s next developments will be seasonal: aquatic and shoreline plants flower at different points in the year, the edible hedge can provide fruit, and the owners intend to leave the meadow uncut through winter for wildlife shelter and seed. Those are features of the planned garden cycle, not a confirmed schedule of future reporting.
Whether the garden’s habitat supports more wildlife over time, and how the pool performs through changing seasons, remains unreported. Any assessment of those outcomes would require later observations or monitoring beyond the owners’ accounts in the project feature.
Key Questions
Who designed the Buckinghamshire garden?
Rachel Platt Garden Design designed the garden. The natural swimming pool was developed in collaboration with Ellicar Natural Pools, according to the Homes and Gardens report.
How does the natural swimming pool work?
The pool has a clear swim zone and a separate planted regeneration zone. The report says aquatic planting in the regeneration zone provides hydrobotanical filtration; it does not give technical specifications or maintenance details.
What wildlife has been reported in the garden?
The owners say they have seen dragonflies, bats, frogs, toads, newts and a water snake. They report that frogs, toads, newts and several dragonfly species reproduce in the ponds. These are owner accounts in the project feature, not independently verified survey results.
Why was the pool redesigned as a circle?
The original concept was a formal linear pond. The report says existing drainage and a suspected utility service crossing the garden led to the design being changed to a circular pool.
Source: rss
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