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Rachel Platt Garden Design reworked a South Buckinghamshire garden into a wildlife-focused landscape with an unheated natural swimming pool, productive growing areas and a meadow. The project retains existing ponds, terrace and valued plants while giving the owners new ways to swim, grow food and spend time outdoors.
Designer Rachel Platt has transformed an underused garden in South Buckinghamshire into a landscape built around an unheated natural swimming pool, wildlife habitat and space to grow food. The project responds to the owners’ brief for a garden that connects with nearby fields and hedgerows while offering a place to swim and spend more time outdoors.
Platt’s design, created with natural-pool company Ellicar Natural Pools, changes from more formal lines near the house to softer curves and a chalk meadow toward the fields. Its central pool has a clear swimming area and a separate planted regeneration zone, where aquatic plants provide the system’s hydrobotanical filtration. The pool is unheated, and the owners said they wanted to use it through the seasons.
The layout changed during design. An early proposal placed a formal, linear pond to reflect a mature birch tree seen from the home’s French doors. Existing drainage and a suspected utility service crossing the garden led the team to revise the plan and create a circular pool instead. The source report does not give the project’s completion date or construction cost.
Planting around the water includes water mint, native flag irises, marsh marigolds and water forget-me-nots, alongside deeper-water plants such as water plantain and arrowhead. The wider garden includes a kitchen garden, grapevine pergola, firepit and outdoor shower. An edible hedge combines hazel, hawthorn, blackberry, damson, pear and serviceberry, linking the cultivated areas with the meadow.
A Garden Built for Daily Use
The project shows how one garden can combine recreation, food growing and habitat rather than treating them as separate uses. Before the redesign, the owners regularly drove elsewhere to swim and spent relatively little time in their own garden. The pool gives them a swimming place at home, while the meadow, ponds and mixed planting create areas intended to support wildlife.
Existing features were retained where possible, including the terrace and two ponds, which the report says already supported wildlife. The clients’ fig tree, lily of the valley, raspberries and rhubarb were also kept or relocated. That approach preserves established parts of the garden while introducing new uses, instead of replacing the site wholesale.
The design also makes its environmental aims visible in practical choices: an uncut winter meadow offers cover and food for wildlife, while the edible hedge provides fruit, blossom and structure. These are features of this particular project, not proof of measured ecological gains; the source does not report a formal survey or before-and-after biodiversity figures.
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From Fieldside Brief to Pool
The clients both work in the veterinary sector and wanted their garden to support wildlife as well as provide space to swim, entertain and grow food. They hoped to connect it with the surrounding rolling fields and hedgerows. Before commissioning the redesign, they often travelled to swim in rivers, according to the report.
The finished layout moves outward from stronger geometry close to the house to curving planting, a chalk meadow and an experimental edible hedge near the fields. Around the pool, shoreline plants are selected for seasonal color, fragrance and pollinator appeal. The report says the owners leave the meadow uncut through winter to provide seeds and overwintering space for insects, birds and small mammals.
The clients also requested autumn interest. The planting includes ornamental grasses and perennials, as well as burning bush, Euonymus alatus ‘Compactus’, selected for its red fall color and multi-stem form. The design therefore addresses seasonal appearance alongside swimming, growing and habitat goals.
“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
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Wildlife Gains Not Quantified
The report describes wildlife sightings, including frogs, toads, newts, dragonflies, bats and a water snake, but does not say when those observations were recorded or provide an independent assessment. It is not clear how the garden’s biodiversity changed compared with its condition before the redesign.
The source also does not specify the pool’s dimensions, the project’s cost, its completion date or the details of ongoing maintenance. It describes the owners’ aim to swim through winter, but gives no water-temperature records or information about how frequently the pool is used in colder months.
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Seasonal Use and Long-Term Care
The source report does not announce a further project milestone or planned expansion. The next developments described are part of the garden’s ongoing use: the owners can swim, tend the kitchen garden and gather around the firepit as the seasons change. Planting will continue to mature, while the winter meadow is intended to remain uncut during that period.
Any assessment of how well the garden meets its wildlife aims would require follow-up information, such as habitat monitoring or records over time. No such monitoring plan or results are provided in the report.
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Key Questions
Where is Rachel Platt’s garden project?
The garden is in South Buckinghamshire, England. The source report does not identify a town or exact address.
What makes the swimming pool natural?
The pool has a clear swim zone and a planted regeneration zone. The aquatic planting in that second area provides hydrobotanical filtration, according to the report.
Why was the pool design changed?
The initial concept was a formal linear pond. Existing drainage and a suspected utility service crossing the garden led the design team to change it to a circular pool.
What wildlife have the owners seen?
The owners report seeing frogs, toads, newts, dragonflies, bats and a water snake, as well as birds using a beach area at the pond. These are client-reported observations; the source provides no independent survey.
What other features are in the garden?
Alongside the pool and meadow, the garden includes a raised kitchen garden, grapevine pergola, edible hedge, firepit and outdoor shower. Existing ponds, the terrace and several valued plants were retained or relocated.
Source: rss
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