7 Different Ways to Use Plants When Designing A Garden

If you are designing a garden, there are at least 7 different ways to use a particular plant in your design. Here are the most common uses to consider a plant for. Not every plant will work in every slot, but most plants will fit into at least one of these uses in a garden.

Wild Garden

A wild garden is kind of like a wild child. It is undisciplined and looks random. However, you decide what plants to put in this space and whether to let them go or trim them. You can decide to prune for broken branches and diseases without pruning the plants too much. Using native plants here makes it an oasis of food and shelter for wildlife of all kinds, from insects to humans. Set a bench into a nook in this garden so you can watch birds, pollinators, and butterflies flit from side to side. Be sure to pick a range of plants that flower at different times, so there is nectar and pollen available from early spring until the first hard frost. You can plant things that have seeds or fruit that persist over the winter to feed the birds.

Meadow

If you have a large space and do not want to mow it all summer, plant it in a wildflower meadow. You can get seeds specific to your area and climate from a number of online nurseries. Sow the seeds in the fall and let them bloom in the spring. Wait to mow the meadow until after the plants have had seeds and they are mature. Of course, you do not have to mow the meadow at all. Leaving the area in flowers all season reduces the maintenance cost and time to almost zero. Smaller spaces benefit from wildflowers, too. The abundance of flowers will attract pollinators.

Focal Point

Most landscapes have a focal point. Many times, it is a sculpture or water fountain, but it can be a magnificent tree. Oak trees are often focal points in a yard. They shade the area under the canopy, so you will need to use a shade loving groundcover around the tree. You may have an arbor covered with trumpet vines, English ivy, or Virginia creeper as your focal point. Whatever you choose, the plants around the focal point should frame it. Don't place plants that are more spectacular than the focal point plant within site of the focal point or people will not know which plant or structure to focus on.

Perennials can be the focal point of a landscape. Bold perennials such as cardinal flowers, purple coneflowers, or Indian blanket can be used, depending on the habitat. Consider using flowers as the hub and spokes of a wheel, with the focal point in the hub position. Other flowers can act as the spokes and rim. Or you could use a tree as the hub and use different perennials as the spokes and wheel. The plant being used doesn't have to be expensive. You can use your favorite plants as focal points in different areas of the landscape.

Seasonal Interest

Seasonal interest refers to plants that look spectacular in one season or the other, usually winter and very early spring. It is often used to describe plants like witch hazel, which has bright yellow flowers in the fall that stay after the leaves fall from the branches. The crooked branches also attract interest in the winter when witch hazel doesn't have leaves. Red bud trees and dogwood trees bloom early in the spring. The beautiful flowers on these trees really stand out in a landscape that is just beginning to leaf out. Ephemeral plants such as Virginia bluebells bloom before deciduous trees leaf out. It is a low growing and inconspicuous plant the rest of the year.

Structural Plants

Plants, usually trees, with bold vertical or horizontal lines are considered structural plants. Plants with cone or round shapes soften structural plants. A structural plant makes a good focal point. The other plants soften the lines and can be planted around the structural plants.

When referring to a landscape, structural plants fill architectural roles. Trees are the roof and provide shade, wind breaks, and high-level privacy. Shrubs are the walls and provide lower-level privacy. They also provide a background for the focal point in the landscape. Ground covers such as Vinca minor provide the floor of the garden.

Midrange Plants

Think of midrange plants as the supporting actors of the cast. They fill the landscape in flower beds or can frame the focal point. Use masses of these plants to bridge the distance between the walls, or shrubs, and the ground covers. In container planting, these plants are considered fillers. They are nice to look at but are not spectacular enough to be the focal point, or thriller. These plants may be used as borders to define other parts of the landscape if needed. Annuals may be used as midrange plants if they are allowed to produce seed each year. The plants will not live over the winter, but the seeds will sprout in spring each year.

Ground Cover

Ground covers cover the soil and prevent it from blowing away. They are generally short and do not need mowing. Use them to form a nice carpet that needs much less water than turfgrass. They don't tolerate traffic as well as turfgrass but work well in low traffic areas. There are ground covers that like shade, such as ajuga, and can be planted beneath trees. Other ground covers, such as trumpet vine, thrive in the full sun. Trumpet vines will grow over arbors or pagodas. Hummingbirds love trumpet vine so will be flitting around your arbor while you sit in the shade and watch the little birds.