A pool without landscaping is just a pool. It’s not magic. It’s not gracious. It’s not particularly nice looking. It’s just a big outdoor tub of water that you use to swim and to cool off on hot days. That’s all well and good if that’s all you’re after. However, a truly attractive and sophisticated swimming pool absolutely has got to be part of a good landscape design. Landscaping, including elements like flowers, trees, shrubbery, patio tiles and pavement, is needed to structure your pool, soften its appearance and connect it to your home, both visually and practically.
Connect the Pool To Your Home
Your pool is part of your home, as your whole yard is, in a sense. It’s the outdoor part of your living area. When you move from the house to the pool area, what will the experience be like? When you share your pool with guests, how will swimming and sunbathing fit in with other activities like cooking, eating, drinking and talking? Hard landscaping like pavement or patio tiles can define paths that connect your pool to the house and to the other areas of the yard. Well-selected plants can help to define spaces, providing separation and privacy both from adjacent properties and between areas of your yard.
Make the Pool Part of Your Garden
Landscaping can ease the transition between the swimming pool and the garden. It can draw part of the pool into the softscape, or it can create an intermediate area that’s a little more disciplined through the use of potted plants and well delineated garden beds. Landscaping can be used to shade the pool area, make it more private and improve the appearance of the pool fence. Plants and trees can even cool the air in your yard and around your pool.
Embrace Beauty; Avoid Ugliness
The fact is, the landscaping around a pool (or lack thereof) can make the difference between a harsh, ugly and utilitarian space, an elegant and disciplined space, and a gorgeous, natural-looking pool straight out of a flowery summertime fantasy. Most people prefer a pool that doesn’t flaunt its structure and its artificial nature. They like to see a softer, more natural look, and that can only be achieved with landscaping. As five, ten or twenty years pass, will your pool gain charm or lose charm? Chances are good that if it’s well landscaped, it will become more beautiful as the plants around it mature. If it’s left as a plain, harsh shell then it will simply look less perfect as it ages.
Next: Contact or Landscape Architects
What are the best strategies for landscaping around pools? That’s for a future post! However, if you get in touch with Space Landscape Designs, one of our landscape designers or landscape architects will be happy to discuss the specifics with you right away.
Also feel free to browse our showcase for landscaping ideas.
