In the growing urban-sensitive world, where modernism is trending, the need to find harmony between rigid and organic forms becomes a necessity to connect with nature. Any modern trend which fails to merge with nature starts influencing its inhabitants pensively. Therefore, synchronizing indoors and outdoors becomes crucial to architecture and the design of any habitat.
Pools in any residential or public setup serve luxury, style, and comfort. They cater a sense of calm, peace, and rejuvenation to their guests apart from swimming. People visit pools not only to dive but also for a relaxing retreat alongside. Hence, the responsibility of the landscape designer to uplift the mood around poolsides becomes critical.
The article follows various materials selected in the right combinations to attribute to a lush and opulent getaway.
Hardscape Materials
In order to harmonize a habitat with its context and add synergy with nature, hardscape materials are crucial in a landscape. They bind the site with its surroundings keeping them segregated and private.
The selection of hardscape materials becomes important when picking up the backyards with pools comes into play. It is significant to choose the right material which synchronizes with the interiors, makes the outdoors inviting, and is easy to maintain.
The article follows five hardscape materials that fit with any outdoor pool landscape designs like a glove
1. Concrete
The most common, durable, and construction-friendly material used in outdoor hardscapes around pools is Concrete. Its property to be customized, weatherproof, and pocket-friendly makes it ideal to level up the landscape design around pools to chic and modern.
Concrete can be used as a paving material, cladding material, individual slabs offering custom-made in color, texture, and paving patterns. Synchronizing the outlook of any form of concrete with the right softscape materials around a pool will advance the overall vista of any backyard with a pool.
The diversity of use, form, and outcomes that concrete offers as a hardscape material is unparalleled, therefore making it at the top of the list of hardscape materials.
2. Tile Pavers
Another widely used hardscape material apart from concrete around private pools is Tiles. As much as tiles look elegant, they are weather-resistant, cost-effective, durable, and versatile with the operation.
Simple to install, tiles offer a wide variety of options to pick and play from. Being any landscape designer’s best friend the tile family is flushed with varieties in color, texture, and materials. They are widely used in ceramics, terracotta, quarry, and mosaic in backyards. Tiles can be used to pave a base palette around pools to establish a synchronized theme with the main form.
With abundant variety, tiles can also cater to highlighting specific points around a pool in order to bring out the contrast in design. They can also be used in amalgamation with other hardscape or softscape materials to upscale the topography around any urban oasis.
3. Brick
This rustic and chic material is apt to add color to the modern-day poolside backyards. Brick due to its wear and tear property is the most durable material which can be used alongside pools. Being porous in nature and its availability in varied colors, brick is a must-use material around domestic or luxurious public poolside designs.
Brick not only offers variety in color and texture, but it is also variable with its modes of installation. Brick can be paved in different angles and compositions resulting in unique pavement designs. Paving around a pool or paving paths around a pool can both bring out character and a bold approach in any landscape planning around private or public pools.
4. Wood
Another popular material in landscape design is wood, due to its rustic and warm outlook. The material which is capable of stretching the thin line between indoors and outdoors keeping them unified is wood. Highly resistant to hot weather, in comparison to other hardscape materials, wood is better at resisting heat. It keeps the area around pools cool and thermally comfortable for a longer period of time.
Wood is not directly installed alongside pools due to high exposure to water. Therefore it is used to construct small kiosks around pools to enhance the natural demeanor of any poolside landscape design. Wooden patios, fences, gazebos, and railing are some of the many landscape iterations which involve wood as the signature construction material to add life to any man-made oasis.
5. Stone
Being one of the most ancient materials in history, the stone is a universal and divergent material. With its natural water-resistant and anti-slip property, the stone is a popular selection in landscape designs around any water feature. The stone being the most durable amongst all hardscape materials also requires the least amount of maintenance.
The stone used in the outdoors is not only used as a flooring material. With new technology, the variety in stone application product systems like panels, gratings are getting recognized, thereby making the stone a diverse material to play with while designing the urban oasis.
Softscape Materials
Softscape is designed to add wilderness to any landscape design. It brings out an organic character in a planned space by merging its core elements with the natural ones. Softscape not only adds life and movement to a pre-designed still space but also makes it sensitive to human senses.
Softscape adds color, texture, and element of uncertainty which brings out the living feature in any man-made habitat. To keep softscape aesthetic and inviting, softscape elements require regular trimming and maintenance. Associating softscape materials around pools with hardscape materials can result in a designed biotic bubble offering calm, relief, and peace in any private or public poolside composition.
The article continues to follow widely used softscape materials to be used in poolside landscape designs.
6. Trees
Choosing native trees to frame a poolside design is the prime way to begin the poolside landscape. Trees add a natural privacy element alongside the water feature which helps its guest to unwind and lay back. Trees not only look aesthetic but serve crucial design functions as well. They act as windbreakers, provide shade, and keep the zonal air clean and refreshing.
The right selection of trees can prove to be a great investment in planning a poolside. The tree height, its foliage, life expectancy, and weather-friendly aspects can be a start point in selecting the right family of trees. These design parameters make trees the foremost element to start with any poolside landscape—be it private, public, or semi-private.
7. Shrubs and Groundcover
Medium height shrubs and appropriate groundcovers are the bread and butter for all landscape designs. Parallel to this, the use of shrubs and groundcovers with or without hardscaping proves to be aesthetic as well as pocket-friendly.
Due to their form as a bunch, shrubs and groundcovers such as grass are applied either with hardscape or they cover a major part of the landscape area. It helps to retain soil and excess water, adds wilderness to the pool context and with the right combinations, shrubs and groundcover grass result in beautiful and attractive outlooks of waterwork designs.
Although they are cost-effective, selecting the right groundcover is extremely crucial. Some forms of grass and shrubs require shade through the maximum part of the year and some yield to outgrow fast into uneven and shabby-looking wilds. Different water and light requirements of the diverse families of shrubs and groundcover make the pairing of these softscape materials to be of prime priority.
Therefore, the selection, grouping, application, and maintenance of shrubs and groundcovers make them a crucial but difficult part of the poolside landscape. You can also consider installing artificial grass around the stones and poolside. Contact an artificial grass dealer to get the best-quality turf.
8. Mulch
The most rewarding groundcover for landscaping is Mulch. Mulch is basically any organic or inorganic material that can be used to cover the ground around shrubs and flower beds. Wooden shavings, stone, or compost resist soil erosion, weed growth and allow sufficient water percolation into the ground.
Mulch is any gardener’s best friend. Difficult to install but rewards are for a lifetime. They save time in maintaining the landscape while adding depth and aesthetic to the landscape. Various families of mulch like organic mulch retain the soil moisture in dry conditions and prevent it from entering the pool water.
Mulch also keeps the pests at a bay making any poolside pest-free and other uninvited wild guests. While adding soft color and texture, mulch protects the pool landscape keeping it clean and hygienic for a longer period of time.
9. Flower Buds
Adding texture, color, character, and life to the landscape, flowerbeds enhance the beauty around the manmade blue lake. The upcycle negative areas on the land, add value and bring out the frame of the entire grounds. Selection of the right flowers complementing the season, soil, and weather is the foremost task while designing flower beds. It requires skill, maintenance, and cares to bloom around the water body.
Flowerbeds can also be used to add a sweet smell to wander around the pool to give a luxurious experience to its guests. Flower beds are welcoming and instantly lift the aura of the tropical oasis landscape.
10. Vines
Other smart materials used in softscapes around pools are vines and climbers. They either grow downwards or upwards. They have a huge family to choose from and can be used on horizontal and vertical plains. The most ideal benefit to incorporate vines in the poolside is that they are capable of hiding inactive areas on vertical planes thereby making them look aesthetic, natural, and appealing.
Apart from being the cheapest form of fixtures, vines are also great air cleaners. The comparatively take less time to grow and hence can be used in tight as well as expanded spaces to enhance privacy. Due to its wild-growing nature, it adds beauty and shade to kiosks placed around poolsides, thereby making them cool man-made outdoor shelters to sit under.
