14Aug
Garden Pools Are Becoming a Popular Trend for Growing Fresh Produce and Saving on Grocery Bills
For most pool owners, enjoying a backyard pool in the summer months is a luxury, and they couldn’t imagine life without it. But for some, the cost of maintenance for pools in Ottawa might be too high for their budgets. A growing trend for pool owners who want to save money on pool maintenance—and grocery bills—is to turn their pools into garden pools. Pool owners in sunny regions are making the most out of their pools to grow fresh produce and live off the land—or pool—year round.
If maintaining your pool is too expensive, but you’re not willing to transform it into a garden, visit an Ottawa pools retailer for cost-saving options, such as energy-efficient pool equipment.
So, What Exactly Are Garden Pools?
Garden pools—also known as growing pools—are solar-powered aquaponics greenhouses. In other words, these garden pools use solar panels to pump water to plants housed in a plastic covering—or a tent—that works as a greenhouse. A frame holds up the tent around the perimeter of the pool.
Inside the pool, the solar-powered water pumps bring nutrient-rich water from a tilapia fish pond at the deep end of the pool to feed the plants. Chicken feces falls into the fish pond from a nearby chicken coop to feed the fish. The nutrients from the chicken and fish provide an excellent fertilizer for the plants. This aquaponics greenhouse also uses much less water than traditional soil-based gardens.
Growing Trend
These garden pools are helping people source their food locally and at a fraction of the price of buying their produce from a grocery store. No longer do they need to rely on produce shipped from far away and at high prices, especially in the winter. However, there are maintenance costs associated with garden pools, too. While you may save on groceries, you still have to consider the costs for garden upkeep.
Whether a garden pool is something you could use will depend on many factors, such as how much time and energy you’re willing to put into growing a garden and tending to the fish and chicken. If you really can’t afford to maintain your pool any longer, and you’d like to save on groceries, then this idea might be for you. But if you are like most pool owners who feel fortunate enough to have pools in Ottawa to swim in during our hot summers, then you should consider other cost-saving options, like variable-speed pumps from your local Ottawa pools store.