Basic Pool Landscaping Ideas

Do you have a swimming pool in your backyard and want to create the perfect landscape to surround the pool? It can be quite easy to incorporate simple, easy landscaping into the backyard that works to make the backyard a pleasant, livable space for warm weather months.

Of course, you want to create a landscape that will include lush plants but yet you do not want the landscape to add any additional maintenance burden to caring for the pool. Avoid adding any deciduous plants so that leaves will not be shed and blown by the wind into the water of your pool, causing you to have to fish the leaves out with a pool net. You’ll also want to avoid the use of evergreens such as pines that lose needles which can end up clogging filters and adding extra work to pool care. Also, avoid planting flowering plants which can lose their blossoms, resulting in flowers floating in the [pool]. You’ll also want to cover the ground with mulch, gravel, or other ground cover to prevent strong winds from blowing soil into the pool and overworking your swimming pool filter system.

Plants Provide Privacy

One aspect of pool landscaping you will certainly want to incorporate into the landscape are plants that provide privacy. If you have a privacy fence, it can be made more attractive by planting climbing vines such as honeysuckle or Mandeville. If you do not have a privacy fence and do not wish to build a fence in the backyard, you can create a sense of privacy by planting tall, leafy plants along the sides of the backyard or by placing large, lush potted plants along the edges of the concrete surrounding the pool. While plants may not provide a complete wall of vegetation, large, leafy plants can provide enough privacy to make the swimming pool a more comfortable place to sun and swim. Some good choices for potted plants include the schefflera, palm trees of various species, crotons, and evergreens which do not shed needles such as cedar. These potted plants can be moved indoors or into a protected area for the hard freezes of winter if you live in a cold climate.

To add a sense of whimsy to the backyard swimming pool area, you can add lighting effects to your privacy plants. Outdoor Christmas lights, all in white, are popular for twining among the leaves and trunks to create a feeling of the night’s stars brought down to earth. You can add spotlights to highlight your specimen plants as well and create a sense of warmth as well as showing off your plants. You can choose small spotlights that are operated by solar power to help the environment as well as your electric bill. Both outdoor Christmas lights and solar powered feature lighting are very affordable ways of adding to the backyard swimming pool.

You can add short ornamental grasses planted along the edges of the concrete surrounding the swimming pool, leaving an opening in the plants where the pathway or walk way to the pool meets the pool surround. Variegated Japanese sedge is great for this purpose, or you might prefer asparagus fern for hardiness and ease of care.

Add Small Potted Specimens

If you have a patio or deck near the swimming pool

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, you can add small potted specimen plants to these areas. Comfortable, yet sturdy, outdoor furniture is a must for sitting by the pool. Add tiki torches or solar powered lighting to the patio or deck to give your seating area a homey feel for nighttime entertaining outdoors during summer months.

It only requires a small investment and a little time to make your backyard pool become a focal spot of your landscape. You’ll enjoy the results of your labors both day and night during warm months.

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