Plants???

Does anyone have an above ground pool with plants that border it? I am looking to landscape around my pool and was wondering if there were some plants that would stand up to the chemicals in pool water.
Thank you all in advance.

Greg

How close "around" the pool are you looking to go? I would not plant anything closer than 3 or 4' from the pool so that you don't have to deal with invasive roots next to or under the pool. That being said, you will want to shy away from fruiting, flowering and leaf shedding plants that can end up have those items blown in to the pool, flowers and fruit also attract more insects that bother, sting and die in or on the pool cover. A nice holly plant if your area is seasonal for it, potted maples, Arbravitae (sp?), Japanese Yew, Yuca - all very tough for near pool areas, do not shed or leave messes and really accent the areas well while standing up in the well drained substrates you should have around pools. If you don't mind the mess and bees, then Potentillas are great.

We have plants about 2 foot away from our pool. Gulf stream nandinas, varigated boxwoods, sky rocket juniper, two tomato plants, a pepper plant, blank mondo grass, dwarf fountain grass, and some pathway type plants. We have a 24' AG. We had our landscape designed, but we did the work. The landscape designer told us not to worry about the roots because they will grow down unlike nutsedge (nut grass). Only the skyrocket juniper is higher than our pool wall. So, I agree on not planting anything that will pollute the pool. Water never goes over the sides of our pool so that is never a problem. We live in Oklahoma, full sun, hot, and dry. I don't have a clue about what you would plant up there in the Artic. Talk to a landscape designer, I felt good dealing with the one we had design our stuff.

Thank you for the responses. Both were very helpful, Do either one of you have pics of the area? If you did that would be great.

Thanks again.

I have plenty of weeds growing around mine:D sorry no pictures:eek:
now on another note isn't there any problems with plants and splash over chlorine water? When everything is warm here I usually have a ton of kids trying to remove 13000 gallons of water in the least amount of time:)

Well you see that is what I am afraid of. That is why I am looking out here to see if anyone knows of "chlorine tolerant" plants. Weeds, I had my share of those too.

I've been using Pristine Blue. I'm switching to BBB next week, got a kit and have been practicing taking readings. I spray my pool water right on the yard when I backwash. I do mean spray. I hold the hose, squeeze the end, and walk around the yard watering it. We use to much water, watering the front yard, the front yard landscaping, and keeping the pool filled. So I don't water the back yard except when I backwash. I hope someone has an opinion on chlorine. I'd love to keep spraying the yard after we convert.

What I did was to put a 1 foot border of mulch around the perimeter of my 18 foot ag pool, I then went and purchased a bunch of good sized pots and planted some container plants in it( marigolds, periwinkles, petunias) and put them around my pool in the mulch, it looks great!!I round up'd around the edge of the mulch so no grass growing to the pool!! The only problem i have is my cats digging in my mulch and making'deposits'!!
It looks really good in my opinion, you could get some bigger pots and put some small shrubs in there also!!

Folks,

If you and your kids can ingest the pool water (you can), you can be assured whatever plants you put there will do fine. If they don't, it won't be because of the chlorine.:)

I don't know whether any of these will be ok in your zone - check 'em out. My sister has them 3 feet from her IG pool and they get alot of splashing and overflow, hasn't killed them yet.

Plumbago (flowering)
"trinette schefflera" or dwarf arborcola (trained as hedge or bush)
variegated ginger
lantana (flowering)
eugenia myrtifolia (trained as hedge or bush)

Hey wipple, Finally got a digital camera. So, here are some photos of our pool and the plants that we have around it.

http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n...Picture001.jpg

Here are some links to some more:
http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n...h/ca5b4a8e.jpg
http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n...h/IMG_0231.jpg
http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n...h/e63ff108.jpg

Here are my tomato and pepper plant located behind the pool:
http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n...h/d4721a28.jpg

From previousally, we just switched to BBB. The Gulf Stream Nandina next to the flag got some high chlorine water on it and it damaged it to a certain degree. You can sort of see it on the leaves at the top (3rd link). The water dripped on it when I was taking a sample out of the pool after I added some chlorine. The water was probably 7-8 ppm. So, I know now not to let the high chlorine concentration water get on the plants. I haven't noticed any problems with the lower concentration water.

The tap water that you use to water the landscape often contains 3 or even more ppm chlorine. Most plants won't be at all affected by normally chlorinated pool water. Salt, on the other hand, can be pretty tough on many plants.

So can the chemicals in the drop based kits, my hosta doesn't like them anyhow. lol