USDA zone 9 covers a lot of territory in southern California, and isn't as helpful as knowing your location and Sunset zone. Palms are useful next to pools, because they can be safely used next to pools and walls, if the size of palm is chosen correctly. I'd stick with clumpers for full sun that tend to keep sending up new trunks, for maximum screening, rather than taller growing single trunked species. Clumpers might include Phoenix reclinata, Arenga engleri, or Phoenix roebellenii planted as multi clumps. Schefflera tupidanthus is also very commonly used as a pool side screening plant, but it does have more aggressive roots and only plant this if in the very center of the planter with at least 2 feet clear to each planter wall. Strelitzia nicholai is also very commonly used adjacent pools in southern California, but also needs sufficient root room as it is also aggressively rooting. Stay away from things like Queen palms, which will be all trunk and no privacy too quickly. If your climate will allow planting and growing success of Chamaedorea plumosa, this is another palm that is often grown as multi's and of good scale for gardens, like a mini Queen palm. Slower growing, but a great foliage accent palm, might be Brahea 'Clara' or Butia capitata. These last two palms are also much more drought tolerant and less demanding of fertilizer than the others. Phoenix reclinata in particular, always seems to need a boost of palm fertilizer with micronutrients to keep from looking yellow foliaged, but is a super tropical and dense growing palm with leaning trunks.

This is a red flag to me: > could they be planted just a foot or two from the fence, growing only out away from it? If this is a solid fence, like stockade or board, there's a significant "rain shadow" effect that you'll need to consider. IMHO, it's almost impossible to grow anything within 2 or 3 feet of a solid fence, unless you're willing and able to provide most of the moisture yourself - and that's a lot of water. I have such a fence, and wasted a lot of cash (3 times) trying to establish rows of holly, cedar, and, finally, magnolia (M. virginiana, in my case). When I finally gave up on crowding the plants against the fence, acknowledged that this privacy screen was a very important aspect of my yard, and set aside enough space for it to do it properly, I succeeded on the 4th try, by planting everything centered at least 5' from the fence. I still had to irrigate and mulch, but it was a much more reasonable amount of water. Last, I'd be very careful placing any hollies anywhere near a pool, except ones with smooth leaves. You've only got to step on a dry leaf with bare feet once to remember it for a very long time.

I agree with Junglegal about getting what you really love :} and getting everything ready and planned then planting in the late Feb or so. You can do it little by little...buy some black cow a couple of bags at a time and work it into the soil. Everyone has their own gardening preferences. Previously, I didn't mind keeping things in check every couple of weeks. Now my "style" is tropical and LOW maintenance...I'll dump some mulch or fertilizer down 1 or 2 x a year, take my clippers and dead head or trim back a garbage can worth...but that's it lol! No more covering plants in the winter, no more digging up heliconas and gingers that are threatening to take over the whole yard, no more trying to keep hedges trimmed, etc :} So it also depends on your interest and energy.

Our San Juan fiberglass pool is 15 years old. Up until now we have never had an issue - we loved it. When the pool company opened the pool this spring there was a large crack right above the skimmer. We called San Juan and they added us to a list for a tech to come out. While we waited 2 months for that to happen we now have a 12 inch crack in the bottom on the pool. This is all happening on a side of the pool that appears to be sinking. It is about 1.25 inches lower on that side than the rest. I have read it can be caused by sprinkler systems. We do have a sprinkler line and head in the area but it does not appear to be leaking and the whole sprinkler zone is getting great pressure. We have turned off that zone just in case. We have the pool company coming out to look at it this week. Question - any idea how much it will cost to fix such a thing?