This is a case study from a project we did for a homeowner in Palmetto, FL. This project had two primary objectives, the first was adding privacy around the homeowner’s pool cage with the use of landscaping. The second goal of this project was to stop and prevent the soil around the pool cage from eroding away, like it was doing before the homeowner called us.
We added privacy by creating new landscaping beds around the pool cage and planting blocking shrubs/trees.
The first priority is to make the homeowner feel comfortable in their own pool. One thing that is common in most Palmetto, FL neighborhoods is how close you are to your neighbors. With homes being built so close together, it can make you hesitant to jump in your pool because you’re always worried about who’s watching.
When we are tasked to solve privacy problems, using something natural like plants and landscaping is the go-to choice. The first step to solving the privacy problem is determining which areas of the pool cage need to be blocked from neighbors. In this case, the pool home backed up to a natural preserve, meaning we only needed to provide privacy on the sides of the pool cage. Because of this, we worked with the homeowner and decided that creating two new landscape beds with strategically chosen and placed plants would be the best way to proceed.
At Three Seasons, we don’t do anything plain. Instead of doing the standard hedge of podocarpus, we decided to add some flare and color, but still acheive our goal of privacy at the same time. On one side of the pool cage, we designed and installed a new landscaping bed and placed two 8′ Adonidian (Christmas) palm trees, along with a 12′ bamboo tree. These 3 trees were complemented with a few trinette arbricolas and corkscrew crotons. To finish off the bed, we used black cypress mulch as a ground cover and embedded a walkway through the middle using brown river rock and 12″ stepping blocks.
The other side of the pool cage didn’t require as much privacy and is also where the erosion problems occurred (read more about that below). To handle privacy on this side of the pool, we added another 12′ bamboo tree, a few trinettes and more corkscrew crotons to compliment their existing pink hibiscus. We also finished this side off with black cypress mulch and brown river rock to match the other side.
Stopping erosion around the pool by building a custom retaining wall.
Creating privacy and beauty was only one part of our objective, the other was solving their erosion problems. Because of the way the pool and drainage was built, the customer was experience mild soil erosion on one side of the pool. To solve this problem, we brought in new soil to raise the beds and re-route water drainage. We built a beautiful landscape retaining wall with burgundy stone and concrete mix blocks. This retaining wall will hold in all the soil and prevent any further erosion.
