Integrating Pools Into Your Landscaping: Tips for Toronto Backyards

Written By Stephanie LeBlanc

Adding a pool to your backyard is a big investment—but integrating it with smart landscaping can turn it into the centerpiece of your personal outdoor oasis. In Toronto and across Ontario, we get about 5 months in the outdoor swim season. This makes it essential for your pool area to feel like an extension of your home and other elements around it versus just a hole in the ground.

As a Landscape Designer in Toronto, I’ve helped families across the city and suburbs create backyards that look beautiful, function seamlessly, and add real value to their homes. Here’s how to do the same with your pool and landscape design.

1. Design the Landscape and Pool Together

Many homeowners make the mistake of planning the pool first and adding landscaping as an afterthought. But if you want your outdoor space to feel cohesive, and the proper by-laws and permitting requirements followed, the pool and landscaping should be part of the same design conversation from day one.

A good pool design considers:

  • Sunlight exposure

  • Wind direction and privacy

  • Views from the house

  • How traffic flows between the pool, patio, and garden

  • Property lines and municipal setback and permitting requirements

🔗 If you’re starting from scratch, visit our Inspiration Page to see how we approach full-property transformations.

2. Think About Drainage and Grading

When taking on a new project, it’s essential that we designate the grading around a landscape. This involves using tools to identify elevation points, or high and low points, around a landscape. Having this information allows us to make informed decisions about design. In a city like Toronto, with fluctuating weather and heavy spring melts plus more frequent severe water and wind storms, proper grading and drainage are non-negotiable. Poor planning can lead to water pooling, muddy patches, or even damage to a home, garage, shed, cabana or pool foundation.

To mitigate water flow in a landscape, consider the following applications:

  • Permeable pavers

  • French drains, infiltration galleries or water gardens

  • Strategic grading plans to direct water away from foundations

🔗 The City of Toronto outlines important permit and drainage regulations for pools on their Residential Swimming Pools page.

3. begin PLANning UNDERGROUND WORKS

For extensive projects including a pool installation, there may be a need for a gas line, electrical or water & waste. These require trenching conduit and should be installed by licensed contractors. While a landscaping site is being prepared, there is machinery on site that allows us to easily accommodate for the addition of these services.

Consider the following utilities:

  • Gas line - pool equipment, a fire feature, bbq or generator

  • Electrical - for landscape lighting, power on a shed/garage/cabana/pergola/outdoor kitchen, pool, hot tub or sauna equipment

  • Water & waste - an outdoor sink, shower or bathroom

PRO TIP: All utilities require following municipal by-laws. Your trusted Landscape Designer will be aware and plan accordingly with contractors.

4. Consider Lighting & IRRIGATION

Don’t wait until the end of your project to think about lighting and irrigation. Pool and landscape lighting can dramatically enhance your space—and extend your swim season well into the evening. Unless a client commits to watering several times a week, especially when establishing new plants, and especially for evergreens like cedar that provide amazing privacy but have high water needs, a proper irrigation system should be considered. An irrigation system lowers maintenance and works efficiently to cover planting or lawn zones and can be programmed during low-usage times. New wi-fi controllers allow a client to pause watering days when required.

Create ambiance with lighting:

  • Underwater pool lights

  • Pathway lights for safety

  • Accent lighting to highlight trees, walls, or water features

PRO TIP: Landscape lighting and irrigation requires a connection to a power source and requires a plan to accommodate its’ inclusion.

🔗 Dive into our Backyard Lighting Ideas article for more inspiration.

5. fencing around pools

In most municipalities, fencing around a pool is mandatory to prevent casualties or injury. A pool fence enclosure permit is required, in addition to a pool permit. There are a laundry list of requirements including the height, lock, setback, ground clearance, picket spacing, ability to climb, etc.

Consider the following pool fencing/enclosure styles:

  • Glass

  • Wrought iron

  • Aluminum

PRO TIP: A trusted Landscape Designer can help you to find the perfect fencing style and ensure, alongside the contractor installing the pool, that it meets all of your local municipal requirements.

6. Choose the Right Hardscaping Materials

The materials you use around the pool set the tone for the whole backyard. In Ontario, it’s crucial to pick surfaces that handle freeze-thaw cycles and resist slippage.

Top picks for Toronto climates:

  • Interlocking pavers: Budget friendly, durable, versatile, and easy to repair

  • Natural stone (flagstone or granite): Classic, high-end look

  • Porcelain: Product Innovation. Anti Slip, resistant to salt/moss/Color Change, Low Water Absorption, withstand load and frost

PRO TIP: Avoid glossy tiles or smooth concrete, which can become slippery when wet.

🔗 Check out Landscape Ontario’s guide on Patios & Walkways for more information on choosing safe, durable materials.

7. Soften Edges with Planting Zones

Aside from municipal ratio requirements for softscape to hardscape requirements, pools can feel harsh or overly built-up when not balanced with plants. We love using layered planting beds with small trees, perennials, ornamental grasses, and evergreens to soften the hard edges of the pool.

Ideas for planting around pools:

  • Evergreens for structure and year-round interest

  • Perennials for fragrance and colour

  • Grasses for movement and height

  • Tropicals in planters for that resort feel

PRO TIP: I like to avoid plants with thorns, aggressive roots, or heavy leaf drop near the pool.

🔗 For pool-friendly plant suggestions, browse Toronto Master Gardeners’ plant lists.

8. Build Functional Zones

Most often, a client looking for a pool is also looking for many usable outdoor spaces. Considering smart circulation pathways from the house to all the other elements is key to a cohesively integrated outdoor landscape.

Consider zones for:

  • Lounging: Designate an area for lounging, either poolside or otherwise

  • Dining: An outdoor kitchen with a bar top or dining table nearby

  • Changing or storage: Cabanas, sheds, or deck boxes

  • Shade: Trees are nature’s shade but can be created with an umbrella or louvered pergola

PRO TIP: These zones help guide movement and make your yard feel intentional—not just an open slab with a pool.

🔗 Explore our Outdoor Kitchen Ideas to see how functional design enhances poolside living.

9. Keep Maintenance in Mind

Choosing the right plants and materials will dictate the level of maintenance required. As an example, depending on a client’s interest in gardening, lower maintenance plants can be planned. Or maybe a client will hire someone to take on this task, then giving them the beauty they want is most important. Every few years, man made pavers will require a top up of locking sand to keep them in place. It’s not a big deal but clients should know they will need to keep that maintenance in mind.

Low-maintenance suggestions:

  • Plants - evergreens, deciduous shrubs, drought-tolerant grasses and perennials

  • Hardscaping - products like porcelain, natural stone and man-made pavers are low-maintenance

PRO TIP: Maintaining a close relationship with clients means you always keep them in mind throughout the design process to meet their tolerance towards maintenance.

Final Thoughts

The best pool landscapes aren’t just beautiful—they’re functional, low-stress, and completely custom to the way you live. If you’re building a new pool or want to re-imagine your current backyard landscape, contact us for a consultation! We’ll help you integrate your pool with smart landscaping that makes the most of your Toronto outdoor space.

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Stephanie LeBlanc
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Smart Winter Landscape Design for Toronto Homes