Tips For Plants Around Your Pool Landscaping

A swimming pool is luxurious amenity around your backyard that serves many functions besides providing summer retreat for family and children in summer heat making it well worth the splurge.  And with landscaping around your pool you can add visual interest making it central point in your outdoor living space.

Plants add beauty and when in case of shrubs, it also adds privacy around your swimming pool screening off unwanted views. Plants add natural softness to the rock work making it appear more of fantasy and gorgeous landscape, particularly when foliage and flower colors are coordinated with the overall site palette.

It’s not just simply planting the plants that you feel good. Some plants shed into the pool making it a big mess. Some plants have spines and thorns which can hurt swimmers. When you are choosing plants to surround your pool

, you do need to face certain challenges spending certain amount on time, research and right design.

If plantings are well chosen and designed, they will show off the pool to its best advantage. The wrong choice could detract from the entire scene. The best plants to grow near a pool will be those that lend the area a special charm with little to no inconveniences. When considering plants that will go near a swimming pool needs certain amount of time, research and considerations.

Things to think about

Pool friendly plants

For a plant to be planted around pool, it needs to have certain characteristics. They should be able to thrive in environment with high exposure of wind and salt and be tolerant to exposure to chlorine and other pool chemicals. They should also be capable of thriving in shaded or semi-shaded or fully sunny areas of your local climate.

Pineapple sage, peach leaved bellflower, swamp daisy are some plants to choose from.

Pool friendly plants share common characteristics such as low maintenance, little or no pruning, and high drought tolerance.

For privacy: consider following plants to create natural low maintenance screen like Laurus nobilus-Bay Laurel, Olea Europa– Olive tree and Banksia marginata– Coastal Banksia.

For mid-level planting: Consider Gardenia species, Westringea fruiticosa-Coastal rosemary, Rosemarinus officianalis-Rosemary, Cycas revoluta-Cycad and Philodendron ‘Xanadu’.

For ground cover: Consider Trachylospermum asiaticum-Star jasmine, Ophiopogon japonicus-Mondo grass, Dichondra ‘Silver Falls’-Silver dichondra, Senecio serpens-Blue chalk sticks.

Planters

One of the best ways to manage plant care is by using large containers or pots. This allows you to bring in several interesting colors and textures all in one container. The mixes create brilliant shows with plenty of variety. Tropical plants and small palms can be placed in large pots and spaced out around the entire pool for a quick landscaping fix. You can then bring the planters inside during the winter months.

Plants to avoid

It is recommended that you avoid plants that shed regularly unless you can hire extra cleaning person. Those fruit and flower bearing trees and shrubs are beauties but they make huge mess in and around your pool with needles, flower petals, leaves, fruits.

Deciduous plants are still okay; as they only require one large clean up session per year, whereas evergreens will require year round maintenance.

You’ll also want to avoid anything that will drop leaf litter onto your pool or the surrounding area, meaning that anything that hangs overhead just won’t do. Also avoid that can have invasive root systems that can damage your pool and plants with thorns and spikes.

Your pool is your place of relaxation. A well planned pool  landscaping and the function of the pool will dictate what can and can’t be planted with a view to maintenance and user friendliness turning basic pool into summer paradise for parties, gatherings. Consult with your local landscape contractors for the correct design  and plants to ensure accurate planting design customized to your project.