This elegant natural swimming pool was a collaboration between the property owner and local pool and masonry contractors. It features a chlorine-free ozonator system, a remote-controlled waterfall, a built-in stone spa and a swim-in grotto. The stones are local native sandstone applied over a conventional concrete pool shell. County Landscape & Design followed up with landscape plantings and irrigation.

The plantings include Azara, shinyleaf jasmine, edible strawberries that cascade over the rocks, Liriope, asparagus fern and many perennials. The lawn is Santa Ana hybrid bermuda grass. Notice how the lawn runs up to and over the edge of the pool. The pool and adjacent guesthouse are surrounded by woods on a secluded part of the large estate and can be reached via a rustic footpath through native oak trees and other vegetation.

This garden won first place in the Residential Estates category of the local trophy awards program of the California Landscape Contractors Association. It has been featured in the Summer 2001 issue of Santa Barbara Magazine and in other publications.