How do I hide my pool cover?

How do I hide my pool cover? A garden pond is ideal for embellishing your outdoor space, teaching your children gardening, welcoming beautiful fish, frogs, ducks... But to enjoy it 100%, it is essential to make it as aesthetic as possible. And for that, nothing better than to hide the cover of your pool (often black). So remember to hide your pool cover before filling your tank with water!

How to lay the tarp?

It is according to the depth and the surface of the dug hole that the dimensions of the cover will be chosen. It is advisable to use a very flexible and fairly resistant PVC liner. Before laying the tarp, you must lay out the geotextile felt over the entire surface of the hole. It is an additional protection of the membrane against roots and stones. Ask for help from a third person (your partner, a friend, a neighbour) to install the liner without damaging it.

How to adjust the cover to the pool?

Once the liner conforms to the uneven shapes of the hole, consider reducing crease formation.

Then do the following:

• Fill the tank with water;
• Let the liner take the shape of the future pool, for 3 days;
• Check that the tarpaulin is tight;
• Mark the outline of the protruding membrane (by placing pebbles, for example);
• Cut the excess part of the tarp with a pair of scissors;
• Keep a surplus of liners around the pool (about 40 cm).

How to hide excess liner?

With stones

To camouflage the edge of the tank, you can use decorative items. Generally, it is the natural rocks that are chosen by nature lovers. The large stones are also used to embellish the shoulder of the pool and fix the tarp. You have to take the time to properly align them. Once the membrane is hidden, check the stability of the small wall.

If necessary, reinforce unstable rocks with small flat pebbles.

With grass

Another solution that hides the tarp is to use grass. Concretely, it is necessary to deposit a layer of compost on the edges of the tank and to grow grass. But, this operation requires a lot of maintenance because of the potting soil that falls into the water.

The best alternative is to lay grass strips over the liner-covered border. It is possible to take squares of wild grass in nature using a spade. Thus, this simple technique makes it possible to hide and stabilize the tarpaulin. The roots of the grass prevent the earth from passing into the tank.

What plants to plant to camouflage the tarp?

perennials

In order to complete the elements used to hide the tarp, you can plant plants.

To do this, follow these steps:

• Spread a layer of potting soil all around the basin;
• Cover the soil with geotextile felt (to reduce weeds
• Wedging the gardening felt with the border stones (to stabilize the good soil);
• Make holes in the felt to plant the plants (use a cutter)
• Cover the textile with gravel to fix it and embellish the outline.

The vegetation that best adapts to this layout must withstand heat and sunshine. These are succulent and perennial plants that do not need watering.

In addition, to enrich the biodiversity of the basin, their flowers offer varied colors, depending on the season.

aquatic plants

The part of the tarp that is covered with water can be hidden by vegetation. Water lilies with white or yellow flowers cover the surface of the water and hide the black color of the liner. Remember to cover the first level of the basin with pozzolan stabilized by stones.

Pozzolan is a porous rock that serves to filter water naturally. In addition, it allows the development of bacteria that promote plant growth.

To plant hydrophyte plants, here is the method to follow:

• Cover planting baskets with geotextile felt
• Lay a layer of pozzolan
• Add a layer of pond soil
• Place your plant in the middle of the basket
• Add potting soil to the pond
• Put a layer of pozzolan to fix the soil
• Immerse the plants in the pond.

Baskets of plants growing on the banks should be placed on the first tier of the tank.

They must remain well exposed to the sun. This is the case of the rush which only needs 10 cm of water. Juncus is a perennial plant. Its stems reach 80 cm in height.

On the other hand, the baskets of water lilies are to be placed at the bottom of the pool. When planting the water lily, you can add clay to the potting soil to properly ballast the basket.

Hide the cover of my pool: the final word!

There you go: your pond is now ready to welcome goldfish, ornamental carp or any other marine species.

Transform it into a lively space of biodiversity that is pleasant to observe. And to make it even easier on the eyes, check out our article on landscaping outdoor ponds.