Do you think having a different shape or size of the pool can help stay away of the tree somewhat? If the tree is about 50 years old, I can imagine what kind of root system it could have been in the backyard. If it was me, I could even think about starting the tree on the side of my house and wrap around onto the back of it? I also suggest posting a picture of your yard up here, I'm sure someone in here can point you to the right directions. Best regards.

Attaching a pic of our backyard. Our lot is 68' wide. There is an 8' utility easement at the back. It's probably about 60' from the edge of our concrete patio/pergola to the rear fence. The Crepe Myrtle trunks start about 36' from the patio edge.

Thinking that a pool would be best on the left (where chimnea is positioned). Natural gas and sewer lines are buried on opposite side of yard.

At this stage, we are thinking rectangular pool something about 16' x 27' long.

Here is a link that might be useful:

Our crape myrtle is much smaller, but you can see it here. We've got a bamboo grove, too, so leaves are a part of our lives with a pool!

Our crape myrtle is much smaller, but you can see it here. We've got a bamboo grove, too, so leaves are a part of our lives with a pool!

{{!gwi}}

The trees can be saved. Hire a landscaping company to dig them up with a transplanting truck that has a huge hydraulic spade on the back. The 4 blades of the spade encircle the tree and slice through the ground to pull out a complete root ball. This is then placed in a previously dug hole wherever you want. Done everyday... not a big deal, but maybe a big expense.

I wouldn't worry about the mess, although considering the potential for stains is reasonable. You can deal with that. I would certainly get the arborist to advise on tree health though before going any further--is it possible that they were damaged during the build? They might not show it for a while and you'd want to be sure they're in top shape before putting them through it again.

If you really want to save those trees (and you ought!) then you may have to come up with a different or smaller pool design.

(I have a 50 year old orange tree over my pool. I think they went in together. It's messy. But enough other stuff falls in that it doesn't add to the job. Except when the actual fruit falls because it doesn't take that many oranges to fill the skimmer box...)

Thanks everyone for the feedback. I did some googling of Crepe Myrtle trees near pools. I found several articles saying DO NOT PLANT Crepe Myrtles near pools. And how messy they are. But I haven't found much on if putting a pool near existing Crepe Myrtles is a crazy idea!

In case you can't tell from my pic, it is a grouping of 3 multi-trunk crepe myrtles. They are probably 30-40' high with a pretty large canopy. I don't think it will be possible to transplant the trees as ncrealestateguy proposed. They must span across 15' due to their multi-trunk shape.

We put some flags in the yard today. We could take off one forward reaching large branch, and do some selective pruning to get the limbs off the proposed pool area. That wouldn't help blowing debris, but might help things on a daily basis.

The PB was already mentioning In-Floor Cleaning system. Is that going to help this situation? And be worth the extra $$?

What about pool covers? PB said a retractable one would be in the neighborhood of $10k. Does this sound right?

Believe me... they can be moved quite easily, and the trees will know no difference as long as the place where you put them has the same sun exposure. I used to do this all the time when I was a landscaper in college. Don't make this a bigger deal than it is... get someone out there to give you a quote and have the best of both worlds... your pool and your crepe myrtles.

Your yard looks beautiful! From the picture I think you would be able to fit a swimming pool in nicely. A free form one would work much better in my opinion for your yard and it goes great with the surrounding area. I would call a pool company and talk to a pool's designer. After all, they can give their expert opinions without any obligation!:)

Hi there! I'm intrested in what you ended up doing with the trres/pool?

We installed the pool in 2013 and have coexisted with the crepe myrtles. We have an automatic cover which helps a lot. It can be messy at times but we just think of it as our pink confetti. I wouldn’t purposely plant crepe myrtles near a pool. But these crepe myrtles were HUGE and old. They are the main landscape feature of our yard. I can’t imagine tearing them down for the pool.

Crepe myrtles ruined our pool. The blanket of blossoms every summer ended up going 3 to 6 inches deep in places and made a dense mat on the pool surface. This got sucked into the skimmer and over 20 years ended up contributing to plumbing failures. It was a fibreglas pool and was just not worth repairing ($12 G) so we had it demo'd and removed. Now, the crepe myrtles arent blooming this summer. I think theyre in mourning. Or maybe God just hates me.