Components of landscaping

Landscaping the area around your pool requires you to keep a few things in mind in order to design a landscape that will minimize extra maintenance on your pool. Applying these principles can be the difference between having time to enjoy yourself in the pool, or spending most of your free time cleaning Mother Nature's crumbs out of it.

Let's start with the most obvious, the area above your pool landscape. If you are just getting ready to install a pool into your landscape, then carefully consider where you will be placing it. Remember, deciduous trees don't just shed leaves in the fall. Anytime the weather whips up, leaves, twigs and assorted other items will be blown off the trees and are sure to wind up in your pool if it sits directly underneath.

If you already have a pool and are ready to landscape the surrounding area, then you'll want to make smart choices with your landscape plants to assure you won't make extra work for yourself.

Avoid trees with large circumferences that will one day grow branches that hang over your pool. You'll always be fighting the landscape debris, and a broken tree branch has the potential to tear your pool's liner. Far better to choose smaller trees that are hardy for your landscape's zone. Landscapers in warm climates tend to use palms around pool areas. Because of the fan shaped fronds, palms offer little to litter the landscape with, and they give your pool landscape a balmy, tropical feel.

Landscapers in cooler climates may want to try dwarf trees instead and plant them further away in the landscape to minimize leaf problems. Flowering trees work better when planted down wind from the pool landscape to avoid dropping blossoms. Low growing shrubs such as spreading junipers may be an even safer choice, with almost no shedding to consider in your pool landscape area.

Next up, ground covering. A good ground covering for your pool side landscape helps to minimize dirt and sand being kicked up when it's windy, lessens landscape debris from being tracked into your pool, and is hardy enough to withstand full sun. Artemisia is a terrific ground cover for areas that won't be used as walk ways. The delicate silvery mounds add quite a different touch than standard landscaping plants. Artemisia is practically care free, can withstand full sun, and offers small red violet blooms throughout the summer. These blooms will hang on after they are spent, so no blowing around the landscape, but you will need to deadhead them occasionally to keep more flowers coming. Low evergreen shrubs work nicely for this type of landscape too.

Finally, don't forget the possibility of using rocks and stones in your landscape. Rocks and small landscaping boulders are maintenance free points of interest, and look terrific interspersed among the ground coverings of your landscape. Flag stones can be used to make a beautiful, durable path or patio area adjacent to your pool.

With some forethought and creativity, you can turn the landscape around your pool into a low maintenance paradise.