Looking for Ideas for behind pool landscaping

16 years ago

Just had inground pool put in at end of season last year up here in Canada Just north of Toronto.

We had 3 feet of patterned concrete put in by pool company. We spent last fall building deck off house.

Now we are faced with working on landscaping. Budget is pretty tight right now and we are new Do it yourselfers. Any ideas would be appreciated. Our lot is 40 feet wide facing south. We only have a four foot access to our backyard. We are looking for ideas for the space behind our diving rocks and before the fence. We would like in the future put a 5 sided shed in the east corner (where the playset is) over the slight swale. Curently we are finding it a pain to jump off the concrete down to the swale area to store our solar blanket.

Here is a link to some pics to give you a better idea what we are dealing with

http://s189.photobucket.com/albums/z288/hanewhane/

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Comments (5)

laag
16 years ago
Retro planning is always harder than those words we heard over and over while we were growing up. "Plan ahead"

Plan everything out with elevations before you start building the next phase. Honestly, you should never have had the pool put in without a thorough plan especially in such tight confines.

List out everything that needs to happen from your solar cover, to drainage, to plant screening, etc,.... and get professional help to prove it out on paper prior to construction. It will save you bigger problems.
bristlingacres
16 years ago
Sorry- no ideas but what a pretty looking pool!
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Nice place. Forget the angel trumpets - they're poisonous, and probably shouldn't be around your pool. I take it you want something very low maintenance, and there are some aspects of 'formal' in this area. So, this is what I would do: I would take out the existing plants - you're right, they have outgrown the space. A lot of work, but worth it in the end. I would plant three 'sky pencil' hollies at the left of the grassy corner bed. I'll call that the 'beginning'. From there, going around to the right, plant hibiscus (very colorful blooms)- probably need 3 to 5 there (measure it out), then sky pencil hollies (3) in the corner, hibiscus again, 3 more hollies where the corner grass bed ends and the pool bed begins, more hibiscus, finishing with 3 more hollies at the end of the pool bed. Very simple planting scheme, but colorful and should just about cover your fence. The hollies get 10' high (but are 'thin'), and grow in your area. The hibiscus get 6-8' high and have up to 10" blooms! They come in a variety of colors, so just choose the one that you like best. (or for more color, choose as many varieties as you wish!) In your area, even the tropical hibiscus should be hardy. Good luck! I think your planting beds could be just as impressive as that very inviting pool. :) I'll post a link to the holly as well as hibiscus so you can see what I'm talking about. Here is a link that might be useful: holly 'sky pencil'
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One other maintenance related landscaping consideration is how much water fowl it might attract as it matures... mainly if you have creeks or ponds in your neighborhood. We're in the Richardson area less than a block away from a park with a normally duck-filled creek running through it. We originally had the bed along our raised pool edge planted with mostly evergreen 'Ballerina' Indian Hawthorn,'Edward Goucher' abelia, and dwarf pampas grass (that turned out to be a mis-tagged standard) which the local mallards loved for the heavy cover they provided during their February to June nesting window. Initially we loved their visits, but as many as three nesting pairs over a season more than tripled our pool chemical costs and maintenance efforts; after which, it was still tough to keep the pool clear. Also, the ducklings had a zero survival rate in our rabbit-proof backyard unless we could get them relocated in time... which never left Momma duck very happy. We've eliminated the problem (so far) by replacing the evergreens with deciduous and much less dense semi-evergreen plants. The bit of additional gardening work for the spring clean-up/pruning is tiny compared with the effort/cost of keeping a pool clean with mallards in residence. An inflatable gator kept on the pool also reduces their "house-hunting" visits, though pretty certain they would learn to ignore it if they found the surrounding foliage more appealing. The deciduous bed has been an evolving experiment since 2011, so has actually been more fun from a gardening perspective. Though I do occasionally miss the more formal look and low maintenance of the evergreens, I would never go back to them for a pool bed in a neighborhood with a significant duck population.
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check this link: https://savvygardening.com/pet-friendly-house-plants/ https://www.aspca.org/pet-care/animal-poison-control/toxic-and-non-toxic-plants
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hanewhane
Original Author
16 years ago
Unfortunately not everything goes according to plan...

Yes we didn't think about storage for the solar blanket in the plans. Not everyone around here uses one so it wasn't on our mind at the time. So we didn't really think about storing it when you take it off. We are finding it saves a lot of heat loss up here so we would like to continue to use at least until kids get out of school at the end of June.

The pool does have a greater slope to it at the back then expected. Our orignal plan was to just add sod back there. Now that we have new neighbours who cut down a cedar hedge we now have privacy issues. Not to mention the other neighbour who decided this year to take down a gazebo that he had in his back yard that gave us privacy on the other side. Thank goodness he has a yard tree to give us some privacy back there.

So now we feel we should do something other then just add sod. I was hoping to get some ideas that we would be able to do our self from some more experienced gardeners thast are here on line.
swimin07
16 years ago
Nice Pool! There is lots you can do with that backyard. I would really recommend hiring a garden or landscape designer to give you some plans/ideas.

We paid one $300 for a plan + plenty of advice. He is out of Erin, Ont.
aezarien
16 years ago
I'd have to fight the urge to deck it all in and have a container garden.

Looking for Ideas for behind pool landscaping

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laag

bristlingacres

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Looking for Ideas for behind pool landscaping

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laag

bristlingacres

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hanewhaneOriginal Author

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hanewhane
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