Intex Above-Ground Pool Landscaping Makeover (Pool Landscaping With Retaining Wall)

Are you looking for above-ground pool landscaping ideas? In this post, I am going to share with you our modern and minimalist above-ground pool landscaping.

Our pool landscaping is finally done. Yay! We put up our Intex pool last year but waited until this year to finish the landscaping. It feels so good to finally check this off our to-do lists.

The initial plan was to backfill the pool with rocks. I wasn’t sold on the idea because we might have to replace the liner in a few years and it might cause an issue. So we held off until we find a better solution.

The other idea we had was to backfill it with dirt. I called Intex’s customer service and told me that Intex pools are not made to be buried in the ground. So we’re back to the drawing board 🙂

I looked for above-ground pool landscaping ideas on Pinterest and Instagram. Almost all of them have decks. People think that if you have an above-ground pool it looks cheap because you can’t afford an inground pool, lol.

I love how the Australian and Scandinavian above-ground pool landscaping because it looks modern and high-end compared to the above-ground pool in the US.

We wanted modern and minimalist above-ground pool landscaping.

Hubby and I went to Lowe’s to brainstorm ideas for the pool retaining wall. We found pavers we liked and plan to order them online to get them shipped to our house.

I started to look into building retaining walls on Youtube. Lo and behold, it is more complicated than we had thought. We are not handy so hubby decided to leave it to the experts, lol.

He suggested that we hired a contractor to do the project. I did not like the idea at first because I want to save money, lol. After watching them build the retaining wall, I am so glad that we did.

It was a back-breaking project and they did it in the 90 degrees weather. Yikes! We wouldn’t be able to do it without frustration. Also, it would’ve taken us longer to complete the project, and wouldn’t turn out as well.

I told that contractor that I wanted gray pavers and gray stones around the pool for a modern look. I wanted the graphite gray pool to pop against the gray pavers. It took them 3 days to complete the project.

I love how the retaining wall turned out! It looked cleaner and more finished. We did not have to worry about soil erosion when it rains.

I really love the California-style landscaping. It is a mix of modern, coastal, desert, and Mediterranean. They use a lot of ornamental grass, succulents, and Olive trees to create interest and texture.

We live in the Northeast, so we can’t grow Olive trees. My dream is to grow citrus and Olive trees in our yard but we’ll have to move to a warmer climate. So, I looked for a plant that looked like an Olive tree.

We saw this Distylium (Cinnamon Girl) at Lowe’s and immediately fell in love. I love the bluish-green leaves and the shape of the leaves looks very similar to Olive trees but this one is cold-hardy. It can grow between 2-3 feet tall which is perfect around the pool because we don’t want any tall plants around it.

We have to find a plant that will look good with Distylium. Unfortunately, there aren’t a lot of plant options because it’s late in the summer. But we found this Orange Sedge ornamental grass and knew that it was the perfect pair for Distylium.

We waited until the weekend and we started digging to remove the grass. It was a lot of work and took us about 3 hours to finish. It was also a very hot and humid day 🙁

After we planted all the shrubs and ornamental grass, we added the mulch. I love the look of black mulch against the green, orange, and gray pavers. Finally, I added stake solar lights to complete the look.