A place of pleasure

They say every cloud has a silver lining, but I defy you to find me a starving person in Africa who agrees with that. Or, for that matter, anyone in the Far North who lives anywhere near a waterway.
You'd think, having again lost my garden in the second 150-year flood to strike Northland in four years, that I'd be even more wedded to the opinion that clouds that deliver 300ml of water in 13 hours are unlikely to be lined with anything but more water.
Having said that, there are occasions when disasters lead to unexpectedly pleasant surprises, and such was the case when, drenched and quite frightened, we backed our car halfway up our new neighbours' driveway and sat there with our bedraggled pets to wait out the flood. It was about 10.30pm when they found us there and gave us a bed for the night. The next day, once we were dry, they offered us their house for a month since, fortuitously, they were going to be away during the period that ours was being repaired.
They say good things come in threes, and the realisation that the house came with a pool almost tipped the experience into silver-lining territory.
So you don't need to feel sorry for us because, in between sweeping silt out of the house and salvaging broken garden furniture from a couple of kilometres downstream, we are spending a couple of hours every afternoon in our neighbours' swimming pool.
The only downside is that, when I should be snoozing on a deckchair thinking about nothing, I am mentally redesigning the very 90s landscaping put in by the previous owners.
This is a square-edged pool surrounded by square, sandstone pavers and edged with narrow, rectangular planted areas bordered by low concrete walls. Pools like this are, I suspect, brilliant surroundings for dreaming up multi-million dollar deals while you slather your body with Lancome suntan lotion. But if you want to relax and think about nothing more than what you're having for dinner tonight, you need something that's soft, sensuous and inviting. Here, the only colour is provided by a gang of espaliered orange hibiscus against the back wall. Poor things. In the other planted areas are bromeliads and cycads planted in river stones.
What will I say, I worry if, on their return, the neighbours ask me for a bit of a plan to revamp the planting around the pool?
"Rip out everything and let's start again" is the easy answer, but not many homeowners want to trash $10,000-odd dollars worth of palms, cycads and river stones just because they've gone out of fashion.
Having said that, the river stones would definitely have to go, and a skilful bloke with a Bobcat or a couple of delicious young men with spades would solve that problem in a millisecond.
The palms could certainly stay - they're soft, graceful, tropical and provide a little much-needed shade in the 30C+ temperatures we've been having of late.
We'd say goodbye to the cycads (formal, prickly and passe), the bromeliads (formal, prickly, passe and just plain weird) and we'd be left with, well, just the palms. Since most pools are designed to get the sun from the north and west, any surrounding gardens will be hotspots, so you need to plant accordingly. After several afternoons of research - very hard going in 30C+ temperatures - The Partner and I had a revelation. What we yearned for, in this square, paved, dry landscape, was lawn. In our minds' eyes, lawn replaced the river stones and provided a soft area where you could sit after a dip without burning your backside on the sandstone.
At intervals along the edge of the lawn we mentally sited local volcanic rocks, and planted little clusters of festuca coxii and the occasional agave. Blue tussock were added to give height. Behind those, Tahitian Christmas trees - little pohutukawa with soft, grey green leaves and bright Christmas flowers. Soft ground covers would spill from the lawn edge over the low concrete wall and creep naughtily out on to the pavers. Against the back wall, we'd add the native climber tecomanthe to cover the concrete and liberate the hibiscus from their espaliered prison, letting them grow lush and messy. More colour could be added by tucking daisies among the grasses. And then the fun part - the pots.
Containers can make a huge difference to a regimented space, and Golden Nugget, frangipani, fatsia, fruit salad plants and dracaena in groups around the pool will make a huge difference to the feel of the space. We'd go for glazed pots in a palette of colours, or else buy terracotta pots and paint them in blues, moss greens and tangerines.
Come round and have a glass of wine in our pool area. All you need to bring is your towel and your imagination.