If you are going to have a swimming pool installed or already have one and are wanting some landscaping to go with it, it's not all that hard for you to design your own pool landscaping. However; you do need to take into considerations the different limitations that this type of area will put on you and the choices that you make for the design.

A good idea before you start is to go to other homes of people you may know that have swimming pools with landscaped areas and get some ideas for your own design. Make sure to ask them the kinds of plants they have planted and what plants to avoid. You could also got to any home and garden shows or exhibitions there might be as well to get some good ideas.

Once you have a feel for what kind of plants might be good for the area you should start measuring the areas you are going to need for the plants you might be using. Make sure to write down the lengths, the widths and the depths of all of the different flowerbeds you are considering. If there is a fence around it you should measure how far the beds are from that as well.

Next thing you will want to do is figure out if you want the flowerbeds to be filled with just one kind of plant or if you want to have mixed flower beds of different colors, shapes and sizes. These kinds of beds can add a lot of different depths to your landscaped area.

You also are going to have to decide upon how much time and effort you want to put into maintaining the landscape. There are a lot plants that will require that you trim them on a regular basis while there are some that are nearly free of maintenance.

Take some time in researching the different sizes your plants might be when they are full grown before you go ahead and start planting them. You need to make size comparisons for the area you will be planting in and the distance from your pool and any walls or fences that there might be.

You should also know what the habit of it's growth is and figure out if the plant is going to grow well if it's near the swimming area. You need to also take into consideration with regards to the plant shedding it's leaves, if it might have thorns and other things that might not make it a very good plant to have near the water.

After you have taken all of this into consideration you will need to figure out just how many plants you are going to need so that the area is landscaped adequately. It will also depend upon how much room is required between each plant. The more room that is required the less plants you are going to need.

Once you have figured out the size of your beds, what kind of plants and how many you will then need to figure out what kind of bedding you are going to want for the beds. Will you want some river rock, lava rock, bark, bark dust or just plain dirt.

One final note, it is important that you don't plant any kind of plant that might end up cracking your foundation or plants that might hurt people by poking them with thorns You want to make sure the plants are also pet friendly in case you have dogs and cats wandering around the yard.