Swimming Pools

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Swimming Pool, Selection of plants

Selection of plants

Installing a swimming pool will affect the climate in your yard – the expanse of water, especially if the swimming pool is heated, produces high humidity. Plants susceptible to mildew are likely to be affected. In making new selections, choose plants that will withstand moisture.

If your swimming pool site is surrounded by pines or other conifers, oaks, or eucalyptus, all of which shed the year around, consider a screened enclosure for the entire swimming pool and deck area. Otherwise you'll have to accept the debris problem. Sometimes swimming pool owners who want the benefits of trees plant deciduous kinds, preferring a big leaf drop once a year to the small but continuous leaf drop of many evergreens.

Keep any new tree plantings away from the swimming pool, if possible. Also, be sure you know how far their root systems are likely to spread, so you won't get roots in your water pipes.

Don't plant any fruit-bearing shrubs or trees near the swimming pool deck. The dropping fruit becomes slippery and can even stain the deck; it also attracts bees, yellow jackets and other insects.

Around the swimming pool, choose plants that drop a minimum of leaves, seeds, resin, and other debris; avoid any that attract stinging insects or birds. And if you're fond of shrubs with thorns or barbs, plant them well away from the area.

Unhappily, some of the worst litterers are also among the best-looking plants around a swimming pool – bamboo and pampas grass, for example. If you want to use them, plant them on the side of the swimming pool away from the wind or where they're best sheltered from wind, to prevent litter from blowing into the swimming pool water.

As in any garden setting, choose the right plant for the particular location. In small gardens where the swimming pool and its pavement occupy almost all of the garden, container gardening comes into its own. Where a baffle fence is used for privacy or wind protection, or where the swimming pool is enclosed with a wire fence for safety reasons, these structures offer an opportunity for interesting vine plantings.

Where there's an existing woodland setting, let the swimming pool take the place of a small lake in a mountain meadow – a situation that neither requires nor benefits from a lot of additional planting.

When selecting flowering plants, aim for good design with beauty – if not bloom – the year around. Remember that in some areas early spring flowering varieties may bloom long before the swimming pool is in maximum use. Plants that bloom during the hot season months when the swimming pool is being used will brighten tubs, boxes, or insects in the pavement.