We added a pool to our backyard in Fall 2009 and landscaped around it in Spring 2011. We planted crepe myrtle bushes around the deep end of the pool and they grew very nicely. I loved looking at the pink and white flowers. You can see the tall, thick crepe myrtle privacy hedge behind these amazing syncronized cannonballers.
L->R: Zaque, Alex, Kyra, Jeff
In 2013, we had a very cold winter and every single crepe myrtle bush died down to the roots. They started growing again at the ground level, but died off a second time the following winter. The nursery experts told us we are on the northern edge of the crepe myrtle habitat so, in 2015, we gave up on the crepe myrtle and planted hardier red-leafed plum bushes. As Ted and I sat poolside in the afternoon sunshine today, we couldn’t help noticing that our neighbor’s tomato plant is fuller and taller in one season than our plum bushes are after three seasons. We could get more privacy from a row of tomato plants! Not to mention lots of tomatoes.
The tomato plant is the tall green thing right behind the shorter red plum bush.