Awesome pool and I love your landscaping. We just began our pool last Thursday, so we're in the beginning stages. I can't wait until I can post pics of a FINISHED pool too. I hope this thread gets a lot of pics because I too need landscaping, pool furniture, etc ideas.

Happy swimming,
Michele

Swith over to the gallery. Tons of pics there. Your pool and view are wonderful.

Here is a link that might be useful: Gallery

Well, yes, I've been to the gallery of course, and enjoy those photos too, but those also tend to be new builds, there are several on there that you can see things were just finished/just planted and I would enjoy seeing those pools NOW, you know, with furniture and plants filling in the spaces.

Not sure if people stick around long enough or not, but I'd still love to have a thread here with more established pools, I know that during my build it would have motivated me greatly.

Nanshot,
your pool and the land/hardscape surrounding it, is beautiful- so serene. What caught "my breath" are the views of the hills and the openess of the land...I would love to look at that everyday.

Thanks for sharing! I don't have a pool so I can't share anything...

Hey nan, we are in New Braunfels.
Do you have any landscaping advice? We will have a planter spanning the length of the wall and I am at a crossroads as to what to put in that as it will be so close to our pool...?

So glad us "newbies" have your experience to fall back to.... Can't wait to post our pool as 3 years in.

Nanhsot, your pool and surrounding area are beautiful! There are a lot of great photos on these forums, but I've also noticed that people tend to drop off the radar within a few months of completing their projects. It would be nice to see followups a year or two later after the landscaping has matured. There are a few exceptions, "Belly Flop" posted some nice pictures 1-1/2 years later (see link below if you haven't seen it already).

We're also in zone 8, darn it! Would love to have a few palms, am envious of the Houston pool owners and their tropical settings :-)

Here is a link that might be useful: Belly Flop's Pool and Spa

Let me know your specific needs and I'd love to talk Texas gardening!! I tend to do a lot of native planting for ease, I'm not fond of planting and buying again and again, so I prefer plants that will return year after year, though many do die back each winter. I always supplement with fun annual color but try to get a good baseline of natives that I can count on and that will emerge early and take over.

Is the bed you are planning shaded or sun? Is is near the pool or actually next to it? I have one bed directly next to mine and haven't noticed any ill effects from the salt water, which was one of my concerns. I'd mostly avoid things that shed leaves or blossoms (like crepe myrtle can be a mess too close to a pool) in large quantities.
One of my favorite plants is the native hibiscus (the ones with the dinner plate size blossoms, huge and red), I just love them, along with yellow bells, plumbago. Pride of Barbados are spectacular near a pool and look very tropical, just don't assume they are dead each spring, they are late to emerge. Chaste trees are fun and can be trained to be smaller, and I tend to find lots of things that butterflies prefer, like passionflower and such (in fact I plant several things ONLY for the caterpillars to come munch). I do some herb gardening too, and those can be beautiful and functional, echinacea does well, rosemary and sage, etc, all are pretty and useful.

Let me know when you're planting, I'll give my 2cents.

you seem to be quite knowledgeable about plants so help me out nanshot. I'm in tomball (NW Houston burbs). I don't really have any projects going right now so I can invest some gardenin time. These are pics of what I have right now. The pool was finished in August 2006 just like yours. I want to seclude myslf a little more from my neighbors, so I'. looking for big tropical plants to hide the fences. What do you suggest?

I have palapa in mind for this, but I'm gonna have to build it. I'd like to cover this corner up with foliage.

tagprod - the flagstone in the shape of Texas - super cool!

Well, being in Houston you can actually DO some tropical planting, which I really cannot, so I'm not at all an expert on palms and such for the area. We live more central and some winters get solid freezes, so I have to avoid the true tropicals.

However, if that were my fence, I would probably mix it up a lot. I like the look of mixed planting, not real fond of structure or plans if that makes sense. I'd probably do some mid sized trees towards the back, like crepe myrtles and maybe even a peach (but then you're neighbors might steal them!). A banana would be nice too, and would look tropical, maybe even a fig, but you'll need room for that. On part of the fence I would do some fun climbers, I'm partial to passionflower and trumpet vine (though it prefers dry feet, so don't plant next to something that gets watered often).

After I had a few back items, I'd fill in the front with a mix of things: some grasses (purple fountain grass is fun~but I see some of that in your yard already) mixed with some sages and such, then I'd add in yellow bells and pride of barbado, some hibiscus (both native and regular), etc for color.

I lean towards more native planting and less tropicals, but I'm not sure if that is a preference or survival, tropicals don't do well here, so I'm not sure how much help I am.

Thanks for the input, nan! Sorry, didn't mean to hijack the thread either... getting a bid from a landscaper today, we'll see. I really would rather do it on my own I think.
Our entire back yard will now be full sun, and I like you, prefer the perennials with some annual color.
I am thinking some mexican petunias in the planter as they tube and I believe will do fine in full sun as well...
I think I am going to go with a design that I found on BHG.com, they have some really good garden plans.

Here's a link to my thread, so others can post established pools here, and please post!!! Give us something to see ours as years from now.... :)

Here is a link that might be useful: My Thread...