Anyone else try adding plants around the pool?

[Benjamin Tate]

I started putting a few potted palms and some random greenery around the edge of my pool this year. Looks nice but I didn’t think about all the little leaves ending up in the water . Kind of kicking myself for that now. Do you guys use plants or just keep it simple with furniture?

 

[Jason Bennett]

I’ve tried both. Plants definitely add that resort feel, but yeah, the leaf cleanup can be annoying. I ended up going with larger potted plants, such as yuccas and succulents, since they don’t shed much. Adds greenery without turning the skimmer into a full-time job.

 

[Mason Blake]

I added a couple of tall planters with ornamental grasses, and they’ve worked out better than I expected. They give some movement in the breeze, look great by the water, and don’t drop much debris. I also mixed in a few herbs like rosemary in smaller pots, bonus is they smell amazing when you’re sitting outside. Way less mess than leafy plants, and they still add that “lush” feel around the pool.

 

[Ethan Wells]

I’ve experimented with a few plants around the pool, and learned the hard way that leafy palms can be a bit messy . Now I stick to hardy options like succulents, ornamental grasses, and a few small potted herbs. They still give that lush, resort-like vibe without leaving me chasing leaves all the time. Bonus: the herbs smell amazing when the sun hits them!

 

[David Wilson]

Yeah, I’ve been adding plants bit by bit too. Started with a few ferns and small palms because they looked great in photos, but they were a nightmare once the wind picked up, leaves everywhere. Ended up swapping most of them for succulents and snake plants, which still look nice and basically take care of themselves.

I also added a couple of tall planters with fake greenery near the lounge area, you honestly can’t tell they’re not real unless you’re up close, and no cleanup! Best of both worlds

 

[Henry Graham]

I went through the exact same thing. Added a few potted palms and leafy stuff because it looked amazing at first, total resort vibes. Then the wind kicked up and suddenly every swim started with skimming leaves. After busy days the water would look dull even though chlorine was holding and pH was sitting around 7.5. Filter pressure started creeping up faster too, which was my first clue something else was going on.

The real pain was the fine bits you don’t see right away. Tiny leaf pieces, pollen, dirt from pots getting splashed in. With higher bather load it all just stayed suspended. Robot helped a little but didn’t fix it. I ended up doing a reset with aquadoc flocculant after a couple of rough weekends. Shut the pump off overnight, came back to a layer of greenish gunk on the floor, vacuumed to waste, and pressure dropped a few psi. Water finally settled instead of looking stressed.

Now I’m way pickier. Bigger pots, fewer plants, stuff that doesn’t shed much. Succulents and grasses near the edge, leafy things pushed farther back. Plants are still worth it, but only once you see how they affect the water, not just the look. Took me a season to figure that out, but its way easier now. Anyone else slowly move plants farther and farther away after fighting debris all summer?

 

[Henry Thompson]

Yep, been there. Plants look amazing in photos, then real life shows up with wind and leaves . I started the same way, a couple of palms and leafy stuff right near the edge, and suddenly skimming became part of every swim. What surprised me wasn’t the big leaves, it was the fine debris. Little bits, pollen, dirt from the pots. That stuff sneaks past the skimmer and just hangs in the water, especially after a busy day.

What finally worked was changing how I place things. Fewer plants, bigger pots, and anything that sheds stays farther back. Right near the pool I stick to low-shed stuff like succulents, ornamental grasses, or rosemary. They still give that resort feel but don’t turn the water into a leaf soup. Leafy palms are now more like background plants instead of poolside ones.

I also learned to expect a little extra cleanup after windy weekends or parties. When the water starts looking dull even though chlorine is fine and pH is steady, I know it’s not just bather load, it’s plant junk too.

So plants are worth it, just not right on the edge unless they’re low mess. Think of greenery like decor with consequences. Looks great, but placement matters way more than I realized at first. Anyone else end up slowly inching plants away from the pool as the season went on?

 

[Elena Neagu]

I went through the exact same thing. Added a few potted palms and leafy stuff because it looked amazing at first, total resort vibes. Then the wind kicked up and suddenly every swim started with skimming leaves. After busy days the water would look dull even though chlorine was holding and pH was sitting around 7.5. Filter pressure started creeping up faster too, which was my first clue something else was going on.

The real pain was the fine bits you don’t see right away. Tiny leaf pieces, pollen, dirt from pots getting splashed in. With higher bather load it all just stayed suspended. Robot helped a little but didn’t fix it. I ended up doing a reset with aquadoc flocculant after a couple of rough weekends. Shut the pump off overnight, came back to a layer of greenish gunk on the floor, vacuumed to waste, and pressure dropped a few psi. Water finally settled instead of looking stressed.

Now I’m way pickier. Bigger pots, fewer plants, stuff that doesn’t shed much. Succulents and grasses near the edge, leafy things pushed farther back. Plants are still worth it, but only once you see how they affect the water, not just the look. Took me a season to figure that out, but its way easier now. Anyone else slowly move plants farther and farther away after fighting debris all summer?

Reading what Henry Graham shared about fine leaves raising filter pressure, I went through something similar. Lush plants looked amazing at first, but after a windy day I’d find tiny debris floating everywhere. Chemically the water was fine and pH stable, but visually it looked dull because of all that fine debris. Now I stick with larger pots and thicker, low-shedding plants so I still get that tropical vibe without grabbing the skimmer every afternoon.

 

[Brandon Hayes]

I’ll add one thing that caught me off guard when I started landscaping around mine. It wasn’t just the leaves, it was the soil. First decent rain and I had runoff from a couple planters washing toward the deck drains and straight into the pool. Water chemistry looked fine on paper, but the saturation index nudged slightly positive and I started seeing a faint dusting on the tile line a week later. Didn’t connect the dots at first.

What helped more than removing plants was raising them. I switched to taller planters with proper trays and put a thin gravel layer on top of the soil so splash out doesn’t kick dirt back in. Also moved anything messy downwind based on how the breeze usually runs across the yard. Sounds obvious, but I never paid attention to wind direction before.

If you’re running a cartridge filter, keep an eye on flow rate after heavy pollen days. Mine would look clean but pressure would climb 3 to 4 psi from all the fine stuff. A quick rinse brought it back. Plants are still worth it for the look, I just treat them like part of the system now instead of pure decoration. Anyone tried drip irrigation around the pool area to cut down on splash and runoff?