Landscaping Ideas Around Swimming Pool Begin With Careful Planning
Monday, April 2nd, 2007 Subscribe To Our Feed
This year I’ll be redoing my pool’s landscaping. The former owners didn’t choose wisely regarding plants around a swimming pool, or mulches. Any landscaping ideas around a swimming pool need careful thought. Why? So you won’t spend half your summer skimming debris or dodging winged pests when you could be swimming. Let’s consider some basics…
Inground Swimming Pool Landscaping 101
Avoid planting trees, large bushes and ornamental flowers, or placing lightweight mulches where the wind will carry leaves and debris into your pool. Landscaping ideas around swimming pools begin with debris control. I can’t control a lot of this myself because I have woods on two sides of my yard. The pool is downwind of large oaks, tulip trees, dogwoods and tall southern pine. So every fall is a challenge. But the last owners used pine needle mulches around the pool’s planting beds. Bad idea! The swirling winds from the woods lifted practically all of it into the pool last year. If you must plant trees upwind, choose large leaved varieties – they’re easier to skim. Think about short needled evergreens instead of deciduous plants. Consider coarse bark or stone mulches, if you must have mulch. Thank God the last owners planted the honey locust trees downwind of the pool, or my filters really would be DOA.
Avoid planting heavily scented flowers or flowering trees immediately next to the pool deck. Aside from dropping debris, they draw bees and wasps. I have two large crepe myrtles planted six feet from my pool. I also have beautiful Stella d’Oro lilies next to the pool deck’s edge. They are all lovely landscaping ideas. Around swimming pool decks, they’re not so great. I dodge bees and wasps every time I want to walk around the pool deck or swim. For someone (like me) who is highly allergic to bee and wasp stings, this is a major nightmare. The lilies are being relocated pronto. The trees are established and I have to live with them. When you landscape your pool, consider planting such flowers away from heavily-trafficked pool deck areas.
Do consider brightly colored foliage plants around a swimming pool deck. Elephant’s ear, coleus, sweet potato vines and many others are available in your local nursery or favorite online catalog. Think hot colors - lime green, reds, yellows. Banana and palm trees add tropical flair. If your climate allows, plant them in the ground; or station them in decorative planters around the pool. You don’t have to give up flowers completely, but plant them at the edge of the planting beds away from the pool deck.
Now, these suggestions aren’t just for planning inground swimming pool landscaping. Above-ground pools should consider these principles too – with one difference. Don’t plant large trees such as oaks too near the pool, even downwind. Their spreading root systems may disturb the level ground that the pool needs or, worse, grow through the pool floor. Stick with shrubs or large trees in pots.
Here’s to the pool landscape of your dreams!
Related resource: Poolscaping: Gardening and Landscaping Around Your Swimming Pool and Spa by Catriona Tudor Elder
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