THE ART OF SWIMMING POOL LANDSCAPING

You just fulfilled your dream of putting a swimming pool in your backyard, and you can already envision the amazing pool parties and neighborhood get-togethers that will fill your summer weekends for years to come. Only one thing stands between you and your first big party: the challenge of landscaping your swimming pool area.

Staring at the blank canvas of yard around your pool can make swimming pool landscaping seem like a daunting task, but if you follow these easy tips, your poolside will be beautiful.
Swimming Pool Landscaping Begins With The Right Fence And Decking

Fencing a swimming pool is a major safety precaution that every pool owner needs to follow. As a matter of fact, many cities require fences as a part of getting a swimming pool permit. Since your fence will be a major focal point around your pool take the time to choose one that will look attractive next to your house and provide a great backdrop for swimming pool landscaping. Do not make the mistake of placing your fence too close to your pool, or you will not have room to place plants around your pool.

Depending on the type of pool you have, the way that you surround your pool will vary. Above ground pools often have wrap around wooden decks and in ground pools are often wrapped in cement sidewalks or flagstones. Choose decking which compliments the shape of the pool, type of fence surrounding it, and the type of swimming pool landscaping you want to pursue.
Swimming Pool Landscaping And Plant Choice

When you are landscaping your swimming pool area, sometimes the plants you do not choose are as important as the plants you do choose. Many people like the idea of shade around the pool, but planting trees around the pool means you will be cleaning leaves out of the pool on a regular basis. If you want shade choose evergreen shrubs, such as junipers and you will have a cleaner pool.

It is very tempting to plant highly fragrant or flowering shrubs next to your pool. As beautiful as a flowering bush can be, it can also be a haven for bees. If you don’t want to deal with bee stings at pool parties, skip the types of shrubs that attract these insects.

A great way to bring foliage near your pool, with the ability to keep things portable, is to plant shrubs and annuals in containers and spread them out around your swimming pool.

If you happen to have HVAC unit located close to your pool, you may want to landscape around it to cover it from splashes coming off of pool for better safety and a few other reasons you will find below.

When landscaping around HVAC, make sure you have 24 inches clearance around it and there are a few reasons for this which are outlined below:

1. Decreased efficiency of your HVAC unit which affects its longevity

2. Increased power consumption will increase your utility bills

3. Easier access for technician’s convenience to perform necessary repairs avoiding higher repair bill

Above would also be relevant for wooden fence as well if you have one to hide your unit. If you live in California and plan to get AC installed, check out ACS Air Conditioning Systems who offer their professional solar, heating and air conditioning installation in Concord service

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Be aware with criteria of trees selections in Building landscape!!!

When planting a shade tree, most of us imagine that it will grow up into a big majestic specimen, one that casts its friendly shadow across the yard and maybe even holds a swing for the kids. Nobody imagines a chopped and mangled thing. No-one starts out planning to cut the head off the tree they are so tenderly setting into the ground.

When deciding where to plant a tree, however, many people forget to consider two huge realities:
We (for now, anyway) live in a time when overhead wires line one side of most streets.
Every city and town owns some amount of land beyond the edge of a street’s pavement – called the “Right of Way” – and the town can do ANYthing it chooses in this strip of land, including erecting overhead wires where none existed before.
The Problem

Too often, trees get planted in a location that will eventually kill them.

Now, granted, sometimes it is the town itself that plants these trees, with no thought of future overhead wires. And the extreme pruning may be the unavoidable result of a town needing to provide services in new places.

Sometimes it is a matter of regular folks just trying to fix up the front yard, putting the tree out near the edge where it’ll look nice and not take up too much space, and not crowd the house. These sad situations are not unavoidable. They can be anticipated. And as usual, part of the solution lies in thinking beyond just how something will look.

But wait a minute. Is it really true that removing a tree’s central trunk - called the “leader” - will kill it?? Nearly always, the answer is yes. Perhaps not right away, but eventually.

Here’s why. The leader is the upright stem of the tree. When it gets chopped off, the resulting wound is a surface that faces straight up toward the sky, a nice flat place to catch the falling rain.

To make matters worse, it is not cut at a branch “collar,” where trees have specialized tissue that helps grow a distinct kind of bark over a wound. The leader doesn't have such a collar. So the cut doesn’t heal well. And then:
Rainwater seeps into the exposed stub.
The wood slowly rots.
Insects find this nice soft wood, and make it their home.
Fungi arrive, and spread their tiny roots.

The rot goes deeper and deeper.
The tree hollows out.
The tree eventually splits.
The end.
What to do instead

To prevent this harm and disappointment, we need only keep in mind a couple of basic things when planting a tree:
Know how big this particular type of tree will become (this is easy to learn with a quick internet search).
Look UP above where the tree is to be planted… and make sure there are no power lines already up there within reach of the future branches of an eventually much bigger tree.
Know exactly where a boundary line is (i.e. the edge of the Right of Way), and be aware that any town might, at any time, without needing permission, widen the road, or install new utility lines, or decapitate/mangle any trees growing in the way of "infrastructure improvements."
As a good rule of thumb: never plant a large tree within 10-20’ of the edge of the road, unless power lines have already been erected...on the other side of the street!

Majestic shade trees are so wonderful and important, in so many ways. There’s really no excuse for planting a large tree in a place where it will eventually die a slow death from decapitation.

- See more at: http://susanreedla.com/blog/archives/what-not-to-do/132-decapitated-trees.html#sthash.t6EYzot8.dpuf

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