I'm starting the planning stages of building a swimming pool. While we have a decent amount of acreage, there is really only one place that works for a pool, which is by an old cinder block barn a few hundred feet from the house. There is an abandon former-cesspool near the old pig barn. (We'll just call that "the lagoon," okay? I really hate talking about having a huge cesspool on our lot and the previous owner dug it out years ago, so there's no more pig poop in it anyway. It's been 20-30 years since a pig was on this property.)
I've drained the lagoon, or mostly drained it. There are parts of it where I can't build, since it's in the RPA surrounding the wetlands, but I can use the upper part of the lagoon. There are some advantages to this. It's near the barn and, since the lagoon has usually had water in it, there are no trees growing in it. Also, since most of the pool won't be but so deep, placing the pool in an area that's already been dug out will save time and effort. (And when I need fill dirt and gravel, I have plenty off fill dirt around from other projects.) For a number of reasons, this is the only place on the lot I can put the pool - unless I put it deeper in the woods and cut down a lot more trees. (And in other areas, the trees are older, which means much taller and the branches are much longer.)
There's one problem, which I've already touched on: Trees.
You can see the mostly drained lagoon in the attached image, but you have to look closely to get some of the details. Most of the leaves and branches that look like they're in the lagoon area are in front of the image, on normal ground, in front of the lagoon basin. The one tree from the right that leans over the lagoon is beyond where the pool will go. (The lagoon is about 200' long and it's hard to get a sense of depth in this image.) A lot of the trees on the left will likely come down, since they're close to the barn we're renovating and even the county official in charge of wetlands and RPA regulations said to take them down to protect the barn foundation. I know they'll say the same about the pool - that cutting down trees within 10' or so of it should come down so the roots can't damage the structure. So there will be trees near it, but not leaning directly over it, but they could be as close as 10' away from the pool side.
Is having trees that will be dropping leaves in the fall a manageable situation? Is there anything I can do to make it easier to handle or deal with? Generally most leaves here don't start coming down until it's cold enough I can close it up for the season and put a cover over the whole pool. In this region I've noticed, generally, there isn't a big problem with falling leaves until the fall. Of course, there's pollen and such in the spring, too, but no larger things like leaves.
Any suggestions or experience people can share about how to deal with this?
I've drained the lagoon, or mostly drained it. There are parts of it where I can't build, since it's in the RPA surrounding the wetlands, but I can use the upper part of the lagoon. There are some advantages to this. It's near the barn and, since the lagoon has usually had water in it, there are no trees growing in it. Also, since most of the pool won't be but so deep, placing the pool in an area that's already been dug out will save time and effort. (And when I need fill dirt and gravel, I have plenty off fill dirt around from other projects.) For a number of reasons, this is the only place on the lot I can put the pool - unless I put it deeper in the woods and cut down a lot more trees. (And in other areas, the trees are older, which means much taller and the branches are much longer.)
There's one problem, which I've already touched on: Trees.
You can see the mostly drained lagoon in the attached image, but you have to look closely to get some of the details. Most of the leaves and branches that look like they're in the lagoon area are in front of the image, on normal ground, in front of the lagoon basin. The one tree from the right that leans over the lagoon is beyond where the pool will go. (The lagoon is about 200' long and it's hard to get a sense of depth in this image.) A lot of the trees on the left will likely come down, since they're close to the barn we're renovating and even the county official in charge of wetlands and RPA regulations said to take them down to protect the barn foundation. I know they'll say the same about the pool - that cutting down trees within 10' or so of it should come down so the roots can't damage the structure. So there will be trees near it, but not leaning directly over it, but they could be as close as 10' away from the pool side.
Is having trees that will be dropping leaves in the fall a manageable situation? Is there anything I can do to make it easier to handle or deal with? Generally most leaves here don't start coming down until it's cold enough I can close it up for the season and put a cover over the whole pool. In this region I've noticed, generally, there isn't a big problem with falling leaves until the fall. Of course, there's pollen and such in the spring, too, but no larger things like leaves.
Any suggestions or experience people can share about how to deal with this?