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Landscape Design

How do you incorporate your landscape around you above ground poo

16 years ago

I have an above ground pool with a deck facing the house just off the back of my home. I have a nice garden going along my property, but I want to some how bring the pool into the landscape and not look like a sore thumb sticking out. What can I plant around to make it look like it its part of the garden ?

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Comments (2)

Lee@A Guide to Northeastern Gardening
16 years ago
Tinylady-a nice way of incorporating an above ground pool would be to tie it in with the existing garden. In designing I would recommend having a gravel or mulched surface with flagstone/bluestone treads around the perimeter of the pool itself for access walking around it. The usage of dwarf grasses and perhaps some low lying evergreens could make a nice transistion to the existing gardens. The main idea is to contiunue the same theme throughout(similar plantings)so that all the areas tie in to create one continuous flow.
Embothrium
16 years ago
Make it look natural by having a backdrop at one end of taller shrubs that give the impression it originates from behind them. Natural pools are often wide places in streams or have a stream coming into them from one end. When an artificial pool can be planted so that it appears to have a hidden source then it looks more convincing.

The worst thing is the common mistake of a waterfall flowing down a pile of soil or rocks out in an open flat area, with nothing but air behind the top of the fall - completely unnatural and therefore comical and ineffective. However, all it takes is a backdrop of taller shrubs and trees that fill and conceal the space behind the source of the falls and even an artifice such as this can be made to look right.
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Most people do not want deciduous trees too close to a pool on account of tree debris getting in the water. Too, the space you've allotted for a tree is not enough. The "bed" to the right of the tree is seriously too small to be good for anything thing. But on that side of the deck is the better place for a small tree. Enlarge that bed substantially and put the Japanese maple over there. Around the pool you are only allowing enough room for perennial. There are many options for perennials but hybrid daylilies come to mind and one of the cheery looking, longer blooming ones.
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I would replace the ball shrubs with a variety of other evergreen shrubs and leave the small tree. Aim for a variety of colour and leaf/needle shape e.g. gold junipers, creeping blue spruce etc. Between and in front of the evergreens, plant some bulbs for the spring, annuals in summer, and mums in pots in the fall. Maybe some red-stemmed shrubs such as dogwood, looks good all year. Herb gardens are only attractive in mid-summer and are bare dirt in the winter, so IMO not something that you want in front of your house. Even midsummer my herbs get pretty messy looking, and bare when I chop them off for the kitchen.
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Thank you everyone for your ideas! I think I will do a combination of things... some large planters, and blending the sides into the path on the front and the floating deck on one corner/side. I am also going to remove the stone surround at the base of the tree, and use it elsewhere. Since I have no kids under 17, the little kid part isn't needed. I will also stain it (thank you for the photo and idea @Beverly) the color of the floating deck. I think that difference is huge! I had not realized that it would be so different! Also thank you @decoenthusiaste for reminding me about the puppy factor. I think I will be doing some gravel underneath (which they leave alone) to prevent any future digging. I appreciate the input, hope everyone has a great summer!
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