Lansdcaping a pool without a pool deck.

[jimsonweed]

I have an onground pool, so sticks up 6-12" out of ground. Trying to avoid putting deck around. Right now i just have large river rocks but they are a pain to walk on. Would mulch be a bad idea?
Anyone have any pics of pools with garden right up to the edge (no deck)? I know i'll need to walk around some of the pool, but hoping i can just landscape at least half with gardens.
Other suggestions welcome!

 

[mrcarcrazy]

Just know that you're going to end up with garden/mulch/pebbles in your pool...

an example I can give is my Father-in-laws pool. It was built back 40+yrs ago. The decking material was crushed shell. I believe that when it was new this shell was mixed with some sort of epoxy, and in theory didn't come off. but Fast Fwd a few decades and those little pieces of shell end up as vacuum bait at the bottom of the pool. It was just another added thing to suck up. If you missed them in the pool they became little land mines for your feet to get cut open on.

I would strongly suggest you reconsider based on this.

If you aren't going to be walking on the area, use something moderately heavy as your mulch...like tumbled glass rocks (no sharp edges). This will prevent the wind alone from tossing it into your pool. but I wouldn't want to walk on that surface. If you are walking on the area I'd do a deck in that area.

*the above advice is worth what you paid for it

 

[jimsonweed]

Forgot to mention that I can't use concrete (told by pool installer). So I don't know what else to do.

I don't think the wind can carry mulch into pool, but probably would get stuck to bottom of feet. But if I put enough plants then people won't be able to walk on that side.

 

[mrcarcrazy]

oh ok, if the level of plants/ground/mulch is going to be below the lip of the pool I think you'd be fine. (We have wind here that'll carry small children off). You'll need some sort of deck one area (I'd imagine) for entry/exit of pool. but for the rest, your idea seems do-able. Wood decking seems to be popular up North, and if it's 12'' height, that would be rather simple to achieve I think

 

[jimsonweed]

It slopes a little so one end is 6" the other is 12".

Right now i just have a small wood landing to step into the pool, the rest has river rock around it. I'm trying to avoid putting a deck all the way around, and instead just do a small "deck at one end, and then gardens/ mulch/ river rock around the rest. Other that going into the pool shed, people shouldn't need to walk around the rest of the pool. But with kids I guess they will anyway.

Anyone have pictures of similar pool without a pool deck? Google didn't come up with much ideas.