A Clean Swimming Pool Without Chemicals is Possible By Christopher Paquette I


t was a problem that needed solving on the farm that started it all. A beautiful 12 foot high granite wall was falling over from heavy rain along the huge 1840 barn. It was one of several is- sues Chris & Terri Paquette knew would have to be addressed on the newly rented farm. Chris visited a rubber roofi ng company, since this was a time before there were pond equipment compa- nies, to see if he could purchase some scrap roofi ng to catch the water along the barn and move it away from the old wall. Liter- ally within days of installing this sluice, heavy rain put it to the test. The result was no more wall damage and what would look like a streambed, if dressed up with some stones. After a little trial and error, they had a beautiful streambed along the old barn. Not wanting it to just sit empty unless it was raining Chris added a small pond and a pump to have running water all the time. This motivated them enough to start offering the water gardens to cus- tomers as a way to supplement their income on the farm.


After a year or two, they attended their fi rst fl ower show in


Portland, Maine with an exhibit that included a large pond and trout swimming about. This was a hit at the beginning of the water gardening trend, and they booked literally hundreds of site visits to look at people’s back yards and see how they could enjoy them in their own yards.


Robin’s Nest LLC started business in 1996 as one of the fi rst companies in southern Maine to build water gardens. This early period was the advent of water gardens around the country. Now, imagine the sound of a babbling brook and song birds while sip- ping a glass of wine right in your own backyard. This is one of the reasons why within a few years, many companies were dabbling in building these new gardens and popularity soared. Robin’s Nest recognized early on that the key component to a successful water garden business was “service”. This was vital to successful water gardens and happy customers.


18 ELM Maine ~ September/October 2017


Today, they open and service more than 100 water gardens and other types of water features every year. As with many new trends, products are rampant for construction and care of these gardens. They found “keep it simple” works best and do not sub- scribe to chemicals, expensive fi lters or gadgets to keep ponds and other water features healthy and clean.


It was working with a customer who had a brain injury that set them on the course they are now. While building his water garden, he asked if they could build it in such a way as to allow him to soak in it. They built a series of wide steps into the water garden that allowed the customer to sit in his garden up to his chest. That was the beginning of their quest to provide chemical free ponds.


It wasn’t long after this pond that another customer called to inquire as to whether they could build a natural swimming pool (NSP). These pools have been popular in Europe for more than twenty-fi ve years and a book had just come out of England, full of pictures and information on what natural swimming pools were.


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