There’s no doubt about it: the mental health benefits of a backyard swimming pool alone make it a top choice for health-savvy homeowners. The multi-sensory benefits of a water feature can become even more significant, though, when they’re combined with other natural elements, all attractively arranged around your poolscape. If you’re concerned that you don’t have a green thumb, this post is for you! You can start simply, transforming your yard into a well-designed oasis that intensifies the beauty and peaceful experience that your swimming pool or spa already offers.
Deciding Whether To DIY it or To Hire it Out
When it comes to your regular swimming pool and basic yard maintenance, you already have a general M.O. Do you enjoy DIYing tasks like mowing the lawn, cleaning out the gutters, and maintaining your swimming pool? If not, we’re guessing you already have some trusted companies or individuals to which you outsource those tasks, and those will be a great place to start in getting referrals for more intensive landscaping design. But if you are more the hands-on type, then we have some simple suggestions to get you started.
Dreaming Up Your Ideal Oasis
The first step is to do a little brainstorming — or daydreaming. Whatever you want to call it, the point is to identify the kind of vibe you want your yard to give off, along with any elements you’ve seen that would contribute to that effect and that you think would work well in your pool area. The sky is truly the limit, here (literally and figuratively): don’t worry about cost at this point, even if you’ll have to get a little more budget-conscious later on.
Dream away! Architectural elements — from trellises to gazebos with built-in seating, or even enclosable cabanas for changing — can add functionality and visual interest and focal points. Maybe an added water feature or fire feature would be part of the picture. Perhaps you’re enough of a movie buff that an outdoor TV would be included, or an outdoor pizza oven would be a great boon to your al fresco meals.
Getting Started with Your Plans
For this next step, you might want to invest in some landscape design software such as Realtime Landscaping Plus. For as little as $99, you can be well on your way to visualizing exactly what your backyard can become! If you’d prefer, you can simply sketch out your space. You’ll want to start out by measuring the available space before you start mapping it out; you’ll need to know precisely how much space you have to work with before you can determine exactly what you have the space to do and decide things like how many plants of each type you need to get.
In Part 2, we’ll dive a little further into the process, considering how to decide on plant types that will thrive in your unique environment.
Read More About Pools
• How to Keep Some Summer in Your Winter – Part 1: Hot Tubs
• How to Keep Some Summer in Your Winter – Part 2: Fire Pits
Lyon Financial
Since 1979 Lyon Financial has made the backyard resort dream come true for over 400,000 families across the U.S. Through our solid relationships with more than 3,000 pool contractors and our continued commitment to putting our clients first, we have built a reputation as the first choice in providing pool financing solutions. For more information, visit lyonfinancial.net or call (877) 754-5966 today.
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