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!!