Tropical pot decorating around saltwater pool in Ontario Canada

Hello! I am new to the forum - just trying to find my way around! I am in Ontario Canada which I think is zone 5. We put an Inground salt water pool in last summer and would like to do some landscaping around it this summer. We have a chain link fence, with a fairly large yard for the city and would like to provide a bit of privacy with plantings. I also am in love with the urban tropical sort of feel! My initial thoughts are to get a couple large stock bins 2 feet x 4 feet - the ones they use for water and feed on farms - and put some sort of bamboo in them - something that would grow tall. I also like the look of large tropical greens - like banana plants ... I love to garden - but frankly know nothing about it!!! I would love to hear some suggestions for what to plant in large planters that are not "dirty" (don't want to have to pick stuff out of the pool), are ok around saltwater and not harmful to young children or hungry dogs!!

Hi, Eh.

I used to live in Montreal (Zone 5) before we moved to South Florida (Zone 10) 10 years ago.

Oh, the winters in Montreal... the snow, the freezing rain, the sleeth, the slush, the bitter cold and the devastation all those weather conditions brought upon my garden! Nevermore, cried the raven.

t got to the point where if anything was not rated Zone 3, I wouldn't plant it. We experienced less damage that way. I wnder if the calamagrostis grasses would make it through winter in Zone 5 while planted in a container. They very well might. Mine were planted in the dense clay soil that was prevalent up there.

They're tall grasses, easy to grow, can be invasive if left unchecked, surmounted by a colorful plume. And they look beautiful swaying in the breeze. I specially enjoyed one cultivar that produced a red plume, which I had interspersed with the shorter beige ones. They grew to 7 or 8 feet tall, added interest to the garden throughout the winter and popped right out the frozen ground again the next Spring (late April, early May). Although I could be wrong, I don't believe the calamagrostis are toxic to man or beast. The birds sure liked to peck at the seeds during the winter. The tall reeds make delightfully rustic dry flower arrangements, too.

I would be very weary of bamboos. Although it is possible that they, too, would make it through the winter on to the next year, we hear so many horror stories about litigation and damages related to planting bamboo that I wouldn't dare own it, even here in Florida.

I hope this helps.
Sylvain.