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It takes more than just an attractive selection of plants to make a great garden. You also need thoughtful planting that makes the most of the different sizes, shapes, colours and textures of your plants.
Many of the techniques that professional garden designers use to create award-winning gardens are simple enough for you to use at home. Here’s how to arrange your plants to make your garden look its best.
Decide what you want from your garden
Every garden is different and we all have our own individual tastes and needs. Before you even dig your first planting hole you’ll need to decide what you want from your garden.
Do some of the plants have to fulfill functional needs such as screening? What level of maintenance and care suits your lifestyle and skills?
Do you want colour from flowers or foliage? Do you like small or large leaves, or a mix of both? Do you want fragrant plants to fill your garden with perfume?
Once you’ve compiled your wish list you’re on the way to getting your plant layout right.
Choose plants to suit your conditions
Different parts of your garden may provide very different environments for plants. Plants that need a lot of sun will struggle in shady spots, while plants that need shade will burn in full sun.
When selecting plants to group together you must make sure that all of them are suited to that particular spot in the garden.
Here are some common conditions you may need to group plants for:
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Full sun
- Part shade (this may include filtered light or only morning sun)
- Dry shade or damp shade
- Sandy soil or an otherwise dry location
- Poorly draining soil or a heavy soil such as clay.
The labels on plants usually include information on the conditions that those plants prefer. Use them to guide your plant positioning.
How to design your garden
Now it’s time for the fun part – turning a collection of plants into your own garden masterpiece.
There are several basic plant-design techniques that can be used on their own or combined together to create unique looks. Here are some to get you started.
Feature plant or cluster planting
Here a single plant or a tight grouping of plants is used as a feature or focal point of the garden. These will generally be positioned well forward of any other planting to emphasis their importance – you are putting them on centre stage.
This technique can be used in the middle of a straight bed, or to great effect in corners. It can also be used as an old-school “island” planting in the centre of a lawn.
This technique is most often used for plants that have characteristics worthy of highlighting, such as the form and colour of a weeping Japanese maple or the foliage and flower colour of mass-planted Canna lilies.
To really make such a planting pop keep the backdrop planting to consistent colours, textures and forms and select backdrop plants that won’t compete for attention with your feature planting.
Layered or tiered planting
This technique uses plants in bands based on their height, with the shortest at the front and the tallest at the rear. These strip plantings don’t need to be perfectly straight, defined lines unless you’re going for a formal look. Some blending together will create a softer and more natural look.
Tiered planting isn’t just for straight beds either, it can be used in any garden area, including curved, irregularly shaped or island beds.
Tiered plantings can make small spaces feel bigger, and if you’re planning a tropical or resort-look garden it’s a go-to technique.
Linear planting
This is all about clearly defined lines: straight, curving, geometric and often pruned. A hedge planting is generally linear and most formal gardens use linear planting to create sharp, formal definition.
Such plantings may be of just one plant type to create the border or boundary that defines or encloses a garden area.
Linear plantings can also include a number of different species in a manner similar to a layered planting. In such cases, though, the different species will be clearly defined, with no intermingling.
You can respect yet soften the formality of a linear planting by using richly textural plants such as Liriopes.
Height or scale-shift planting
This technique contrasts the heights of tall and short plants to create drama and impact. It’s great for emphasising the height of the plants to the rear and for filling any gaps that tall plants might have in their foliage closer to the ground.
A good example is using low-growing Gardenias in front of sasanqua Camellias.
Texture-shift planting
The objective here is to mix foliage forms to provide contrasting visual textures. One example is planting giant elephant ears with strappy-leaved foliage plants such as Lomandras. This technique is often used in tropical or resort-style gardens.
Texture-shift planting can be combined with height-shift to great effect – for example planting a row of dwarf Agapanthus in front of a lilly pilly hedge.
Underplanting
Underplanting is a fill-in planting beneath larger or more broadly spreading plants. It’s often done with typical groundcover plants, which can also serve as a living mulch.
Don’t treat underplanting as an afterthought. It can be used as an important component of your design. Smaller plants such as native violet or Ajuga can provide a lovely textural and flowering display.
You can also use slightly larger plants, such as the low-growing Gardenia radicans.
Underplanting can also provide awesome contrasts, for example when planting bromeliads with colourful foliage in the dry shade created by gum trees.
A classic example is to underplant deciduous trees with spring-flowering bulbs so that the foliage of the bulbs begins to emerge as your deciduous plants finish dropping their leaves.
Colourful and variegated foliage
Many flowering or deciduous plants only put on a show once a year, but plants with colourful or variegated foliage provide some “Wow!” factor all-year round.
It’s important to use them carefully and sparingly, though, to keep your design from looking haphazard.
Cordylines are a great example of a group of plants that brings wonderful colour and foliage texture.
There are also many variegated plants whose leaves have cream or white stripes or irregular patterns. Many do well in the shade, so they can be great for adding some highlights in dull areas.
Remember that these are not hard and fast design rules. The beauty and uniqueness you create is all down to you. Never be afraid to mix it up and create spaces that are truly your own.
More advice on choosing and growing plants
The Bunnings Workshop community has shared several other resources on selecting different types of plants and maintaining a healthy garden. These include:
- How to choose plants for your garden
- How to choose fragrant plants
- How to choose a screening plant
- How to choose a hedging plant.
Inspiration for your garden
Bunnings Workshop members have shared many impressive and inspiring gardening projects. Check out our Top 10 most popular garden makeovers and our Top 10 most popular landscaping projects.
Our collection of Top 10 most popular raised garden beds and Top 10 most popular planter box projects should also spark some creative ideas for your garden.
Need more help with your garden?
The Bunnings Workshop community is here to help if you need a hand with your garden projects. Feel free to Start a new discussion and let us know what you need.
