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Writer's pictureDavid Locke

Building A European Pool - Garden Journal 1/15/19

Updated: Dec 31, 2022

-Partly cloudy, has been oddly mild in the upper 50's and 60's for weeks

-Collins Landscaping is digging our dry creek bed

-Slow going as the ground will not dry from all the days of rain, ground sodden

Cleaning the skimmer of what appeared to be hundreds of beetles was the job I hated most as a kid! My job for most of my late childhood and teenage years was caring for two pools in our family. Sweeping, vacuuming, scrubbing, etc. was my summer as was the fun of swimming. Pools are important to me! My grandmother even led me to know Jesus in their pool at the age of eight. How I can remember so many evenings with her in the pool staring up at the clouds over my grandparent's South Carolina farm.



When the time came to make the financial commitment to build or not to build a pool, I remembered those wonderful childhood memories of dripping dry while eating salted watermelon and swooping Lego submarines. I wanted our sons to have the joy of a pool along with the many friends that could be blessed by fellowship and fun.


I can remember seeing Martha Stewart's Turkey Hill pool on her show and magazine as a high schooler and thinking how decorative it was in the landscape. Her pool was centered in a large lawn with no deck. When my wife and I decided that a French Garden was what we desired, the reflecting pools of French gardens inspired the decisions of us and our landscape architect to create a European pool that would fit in as much as a garden element as a place for fun.



What makes a European pool? Basically a European pool has little coping and no large decking surrounding the water. Thus the pool looks more like a reflecting pool or decorative pond. The pool is dropped into the sod so it has a more integrated feel with the landscape as as whole.


Mize Pools built the pool for our garden with a stainless form and grey liner that does not look artificial in color. We also elected to go with a salt water system which requires less upkeep and virtually no chemicals. For the coping we decided to create a rough finish by covering the wet concrete with rock salt. The result, coping that looks like expensive rough cut travertine. Best of all this process is cooler on the feet and costs less to finish. As spring and summer approach I plan to surround the pool with large planters filled with annuals and chaise lounges that will give a joie de vivre feeling to the center of summer fun.



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