Ideas for a Garden Around a Pool Deck
Take an original approach when designing a garden around a pool deck. You don't have to plant geometric rows or a busy cottage garden. Reinvent your pool area as a tropical paradise, a minimalist oasis, a movable feast or a different kind of pool altogether. Whatever your design, remember a few basic rules: avoid using deciduous trees that drop leaves in the pool; do not plan sloping garden beds that send runoff into the water; integrate the garden area with the pool and home architecture; and keep it low-maintenance. Does this Spark an idea?
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Minimalist Cool Pool
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A contemporary pool and deck looks best with a simple treatment but that doesn't mean austere. When the pool's coping is concrete or stone, break up a concrete deck into pavers surrounded by Bermuda grass or another hardy lawn grass that is easy on the eye and feet. Extend the deck concept to the garden area. Plant ornamental grasses and shrubs, interspersed with a few containers or small beds of reblooming daylilies. The result will be an unfussy look to complement a modern pool and deck, requiring minimal maintenance.
Green Market Pool Deck
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Edge a wooden pool deck with raised planters in wood frames and grow the family's groceries poolside. Use the same wood as the pool deck to build the planters. Site them so any runoff in a rainstorm or from regular irrigation can't seep into the pool. Place trellises at each of the four sides of the pool deck for tomato and bean vines. Plant honeysuckle to attract pollinating bees and a stand of giant sunflowers for their visual appeal and abundant seeds. Set strawberry pots along a sunny edge of the deck. Grow lettuces, peas, carrots, green onions, radishes--whatever vegetables your family likes to eat. Plant nasturtiums and marigolds among the vegetables to deter pests.
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Tropical Retreat
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Turn the backyard into a tropical island. Run the wood deck right up to the edge of the pool. Instead of formal coping, use flat, uneven lava rocks to surround the pool and build a palm thatch or a tin roof over one corner of the deck. Train orchids to attach to any trees in the pool area and hang orchid pots from the roof supports. Put up a hammock. Plant some flowering vines like acanthus, jade vine or honeysuckle and a stand of bamboo or hibiscus bushes. Add a bubbling fountain or a small waterfall and leave the suburbs behind.
Post-pool Garden
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A pool past its prime might be a candidate to be replaced by a garden. Replace an aging fiberglass pool and cracked concrete deck with a woodland idyll complete with lily pond or a reflecting pool edged by stepping stones and overrun with patches of wildflowers, butterfly bushes and annual beds. Change the flowers over the course of the season from tulips to daylilies to mums. Tuck in a few hostas for dark green and variegated foliage and plant ferns along the water's edge. Clear enough space for a stepping stone circle to hold a weathered wood table and chairs or stone benches. Add a waterfall or a fountain to the pond and sit on the edge to dangle your feet in the water on a hot summer afternoon.
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References
- Photo Credit Deck chairs and umbrellas next to a swimming pool. image by Gina Smith from Fotolia.com
