Full‑Sun Pool in Southeast Texas: How to Get Real Shade and Privacy Without Trashing the Water

The Scenario

A homeowner recently asked:

"Landscaping Advice"

The GardenOwl Diagnosis

The Assessment

New house in southeast Texas, brand‑new pool, no shade anywhere.

You’ve got the classic hot-box setup: pale decking, bright blue water, a straight fence line, and two-story neighbors staring down into the yard. Someone tossed in a few tropicals (elephant ears, some potted shrubs, a couple of odds and ends), but there’s no height, no privacy, and nowhere for a human to sit without cooking. Beyond comfort, this poor planning drastically hurts your curb appeal. This is what I see all the time: the pool went in first, then rock mulch and 'some plants' were thrown at the problem—a clear case of The Synthetic Heat Island. The result is a big heat reflector with some greenery sprinkled around.

Let’s fix it like a pro.

The Trap: Why These Pool Beds Feel So Harsh

This yard checks every “too hot” box:

• Full southern exposure with zero canopy.
• Heat reflection from the water and light deck. That blue pool is basically a mirror bouncing sunlight back into the plants (and your eyeballs).
• Narrow planting strip along the fence where everything is jammed right against the wood.
• No vertical structure. The tallest thing is the fence, so your eye just slams into that wall of boards and your neighbors’ second stories.

What usually happens next is the expensive mistake:

• People buy random pretty plants from the nursery.
• They cram them close to the fence.
• Half of them fry by August.
• The survivors are either too small to matter or too messy to live next to a pool.

Around a pool, you cannot treat plants like throw pillows. They’re infrastructure. You need:

1. Real shade and screening (small trees and tall shrubs).
2. Evergreen backbone so it looks good in January.
3. Heat‑proof color that won’t constantly gum up the skimmer.

You’re in roughly USDA Zone 9a—check your exact zone on the USDA Plant Hardiness Map—which is a gift. You can get away with a lot of bold, tropical texture, if you choose species that love heat and don’t drop a ton of junk in the water.

The Solution (Deep Dive)

1. Start With the Big Moves: Trees and Tall Screens

Stop thinking "border plants" and start thinking "outdoor room." The neighbors’ second‑story windows are your ceiling height reference.

Along that back bed, I’d install 3–4 small trees, planted 6–8 feet off the fence, not jammed on top of it. That distance matters:

• Roots have room so they don’t wreck the fence or future footings.
• Branches can grow naturally without you chainsawing the fence line every year.
• You get canopy over the pool zone, not just a shrub wall.

Good small trees for this yard:

• Little Gem Magnolia
  Compact form of southern magnolia. Evergreen, glossy leaves, fragrant blooms. Tough in heat, respectable around pools if you’re not directly over the water. I’d use 1–2 as anchors near each end of the bed.

• Desert Willow (Chilopsis linearis)
  Loves blistering sun, light airy canopy, long summer bloom. Drops a bit of flower litter, but nothing your skimmer can’t handle if you keep it a few feet off the pool. Great in that central span where you want dappled shade, not a solid wall.

• Vitex (Chaste Tree)
  Another sun‑lover that laughs at heat, with purple flower spikes and a looser shape. Can be limbed up into a small multi‑trunk tree. Looks fantastic against that gray fence.

If you’re bamboo‑curious, only use clumping types, like Bambusa multiplex ‘Alphonse Karr’.

• They stay in a tight clump instead of sending runners to your neighbor’s kitchen.
• Bamboo gives instant height and movement and reads very “pool resort.”
• I’d use 1–2 clumps offset, not line the whole fence. Bamboo rows look like prison camps.

If you’ve ever dealt with running bamboo, you know why I’m saying this: don’t plant runners. Ever.

Between or instead of bamboo, run a backbone of Wax Myrtle (Morella cerifera) along the fence:

• Native, evergreen, fast, and handles wet/dry swings.
• Easy to shear into a loose screen.
• Good habitat plant—Audubon actually recommends it in many regions on their native plant finder.

These trees and tall shrubs do three jobs:

1. Break up the neighbor view.
2. Throw shade on the decking and water.
3. Give all your smaller plants a backdrop.

2. Middle Layer: Tough, Colorful Shrubs

Once the “ceiling” is in, fill the wall.

You already have some tropical texture going. Let’s make it intentional.

Run a repeating band of shrubs about 3–4 feet off the coping edge:

• Hardy Hibiscus / Texas Star Hibiscus
  These love heat, give you huge flowers, and die back in winter then pop back up. Plant them in small groups so you get big swaths of color instead of dot‑dot‑dot flowers.

• Dwarf Bottlebrush (Callistemon ‘Little John’ or similar)
  Evergreen, red flowers most of the warm season, drought‑tough once established. Pollinators love it. Keep it a few feet away from the coping to limit the odd flower in the pool.

• Sun‑loving Loropetalum (compact varieties)
  Deep burgundy foliage, pink fringe flowers in spring. This gives you color even when nothing is blooming.

• Dwarf Oleander — only if you don’t have pets or kids that chew plants.
  Bombproof in sun, flowers for months, but every part is poisonous. I usually skip it in family yards; there are plenty of safer options.

These go in front of your tree line but behind the final front edge. Think of this tier as your “sofa” against the back wall.

3. Front Edge: Soft, Low, and Pool‑Friendly

Closest to the pool, you want low plants that:

• Don’t have thorns.
• Don’t explode into the walkway.
• Don’t dump big leaves into the water.

Good picks for this job:

• Dwarf Muhly Grass or Gulf Muhly
  Handles reflected heat, gives that fine, fountain texture that blows in the breeze. Fall bloom plumes look incredible against water.

• Society Garlic (Tulbaghia violacea)
  Tough as nails, purple flowers, low clump. Smells like garlic when crushed, which some people like, some don’t. Great edging plant that doesn’t care about heat.

• Liriope or dwarf mondo grass, in smaller patches near steps or corners where you want a clean, low transition.

Plant these in drifts and repeats, not one of each. That rock mulch will actually look intentional once it has sweeping bands of grass breaking it up.

4. Clean Up the Existing Bed

Right now, you’ve got a few nice things (elephant ears, some color in pots) but the layout is random.

I’d:

1. Keep the best elephant ears and line them up as a repeating backdrop under the new trees. They read big and tropical from across the pool.
2. Consolidate pots. Use them as accents at the ends of the pool or by seating, not sprinkled everywhere.
3. Edit anything fussy that hates full sun or looks crispy by late summer. If it can’t survive August in southeast Texas, it doesn’t get to live here.

If you’re dealing with rock mulch over clay (very likely), remember: clay doesn’t infiltrate water well when it’s compacted. Over time, work in compost where you can, or at least pierce the soil with a long auger to give roots a chance. For more on how soil structure and drainage affect plant health, the University of Minnesota has a good explainer on soil health and drainage.

5. Human Shade: Pergolas and Shade Sails

Tree shade is great, but you’ll be waiting a few years. If you actually want to sit out there in July without melting, add built shade on the deck side.

Two simple options that work with your space:

• A slim pergola along one long side of the pool, posts set into concrete footings or big, heavy planters (so you don’t swiss‑cheese the deck). Run a slatted top with a retractable fabric or polycarbonate panels.

• Shade sails anchored back to the house and to posts recessed into beds or big planters. Don’t just screw them into the fence—it won’t like the wind load.

Tie the posts into your planting plan: climb a vine up one corner (star jasmine, crossvine) where it won’t shower the pool with petals.

If you like seeing how structures transform a yard, check out how we used built elements and planting together in this front entry project: "Flat, Beige, and Boiling: How We Turned This Rock Yard Into a Welcoming Desert Front Entry".

6. Layout and Spacing Cheat Sheet

For your specific pool bed depth (looks like roughly 8–10 feet from fence to coping):

• 0–2 feet from fence: Wax myrtle / clumping bamboo, trained up as a screen.
• 6–8 feet from fence: Small trees (Little Gem, desert willow, vitex), staggered so you’re not in a straight bowling‑alley line.
• 4–6 feet from coping: Shrub band (bottlebrush, hibiscus, loropetalum) in groups of 3–5.
• 1–3 feet from coping: Low grasses and society garlic in long curves.

No straight rows. Follow the pool’s curves so the planting feels like it grew there, not like someone drew a line with a ruler.

If you ever add a small retaining wall or change grade back there, read this first so you don’t crack anything: "Retaining Wall on a Steep Slope: Where You Can Dig (and What Will Break It)".

Visualizing the Result (Without Expensive Mistakes)

The fastest way to ruin a good pool is to overplant it—too many trees too close, pergola shoved into the wrong spot, or a jungle of shrubs that make the deck feel cramped.

Before you start ordering 15‑gallon trees and jackhammering holes in the deck, mock it up.

Take a straight‑on photo of that fence side and upload it to the GardenDream tool. You can:

• Drop in trees at mature size and see if they block the neighbor’s second story or just the fence.
• Test where a pergola post can go without visually crowding the pool edge.
• Play with planting heights and colors until the bed reads as one composition instead of random pots.

Use it like a blueprint or safety net so you’re not stuck staring at a Little Gem Magnolia you planted 3 feet from the coping wondering how to move it without a backhoe.

If you want to test this on your own yard, upload a photo to our Exterior Design App and see what this design would look like in your space.