Landscape Design 101: Choosing the Right Plants

Download and print the companion worksheet for this module!

Now, for the fun part–shopping! When picking out plants, it's very easy to get carried away or overwhelmed by all the options out there. Of course, you want to narrow down your search according to your growing zone, but as we’ve discussed previously, there’s always more to consider when placing plants into your landscape. Together, we’ll create a game plan to help you correctly choose, sort, and shop for your landscape plants so that they’ll thrive!

Want to skip ahead? Use the links below to jump to a specific section.

• Learn Shopping Strategy
• Mixing Up Your Plant Types
• Grass Guide
• Plant Selection Tools
  

Shop Smart

If you’re like us, you could spend all day long online or in a store looking at all the beautiful plants and wanting to bring every one of them home! However, not all plants will thrive in the same location, and there’s only so much space in your landscape. For now, focus on shopping smart and not getting lost in all your options.

The first step to shopping smart is planning ahead. Find out your needs and then try to meet them. If you have your preliminary design or a list of preferred plants, pull those notes out and do a little bit of review. Make a list of the types of spaces you have to fill and leave room to write possible plants beneath each category. See our example below:

Deep Shade and Dry Soil	Full Sun and Wet Soil	Full Sun and Dry Soil
List possible plants here	List possible plants here	List possible plants here

 

Right Plant, Right Place

When choosing plants, it's important to consider the benefit they bring to your yard, but in order to bring any sort of benefit, they have to survive. If you place a plant in the wrong location where the needs are not being met, it will only be an uphill battle. An unhappy plant is an unhealthy one that will be prone to diseases and pests, or exhibit slow or little growth with limited flowering and fruiting. It’s best to work with the environment you have instead of creating a new one just to fit in a certain plant where you want it. Try to be flexible, and if you have to have a certain plant in your landscape, find the ideal spot and start from there instead of the other way around.

When looking at a possible plant, start by reading about its specific needs. Information that you’ll want to pay attention to is the plant’s ideal growing zone, sun requirements, water needs, and mature height and width. There might be other information included, as well, so read the plant’s tag carefully to determine if it’s well suited for your yard. Then, make a list of possible plants as you go, jotting down their needs beside them to save yourself some time.

Example: White Kousa Dogwood Tree

• 15-25 ft. tall by 25 ft. wide
• Full to partial shade
• Evenly moist soil
• Red leaves in fall
• White flowers in early spring

Sorting Plants

Once you know the areas you want to fill and have considered what plants to use, sorting your plants by their needs is the next step. And after you’ve gathered the basic care information, the best way to sort your plants is by water needs first, then sun needs second. It might sound odd to put water needs before sunlight requirements, but this is the most beneficial way of organizing your possible plants.

For example, you wouldn’t want to put a succulent next to a variety that will require a lot of water like a hydrangea, or you’ll forever be struggling to find balance. Instead, look at how much water your plants prefer, and if they have similar requirements, know that those plants would be great together. Next, look at the sunlight requirements and further sort them into the areas you have to fill. Refer to the notes you made in the “Shop Smart” section above to help.

Color, Shape, Texture, and Height

Don’t feel limited to one kind of plant in one area. Get creative and branch out into different plant families to mix and match. Choosing a variety of shapes, colors, textures, and heights can add dimension and interest to your area to draw you in and bring the design to life.

Color

Color is an easy way to add interest or simplicity to your design. Choose your favorite colors or build off of a color scheme. Whatever you choose, have fun with it! Pick colors opposite from one another to add contrast or neighboring colors to add harmony and a feeling of cohesiveness.

FGT Tip: Don’t forget that plants change with the seasons, so make note of fall colors too when you’re considering plants to add!

Shape

Every plant will have a natural shape or form that they grow into. Even pruned trees will naturally prefer one shape over another. Take a look at the natural shape and see if it fits your landscape’s theme. Some tree canopies are less defined than others, but all have a general shape. For more formal designs, go with columnar or vase shapes. Or go for a more natural look with layered or rounded shapes. Even smaller plants like grass will tend to have a more natural shape compared to a rose bush. Below are some common canopy shapes you’ll find.

Texture

Texture adds that extra bit of appeal to your landscape that’s often hard to name. In the landscape world, texture often refers to a plants’ leaves. Coarsely textured plants will have broader, larger leaves, while fine-textured plants have more delicate, thinner leaves. And when talking about grass, coarse grass will have thicker blades, while fine-textured grass has thinner blades. Layering textures is an easy way to add depth and dimension, along with different colors and shapes. Avoid using only one texture, as this can cause your landscape to look flat and less appealing.

Height

Adding varying heights in a garden bed creates movement and sets the tone. If your planting area is deep enough, try a few layers with taller plants in back and shorter ones in front. Play with the different layers to create a focal point and draw the eye upwards. Try not to go from one extreme height to another, as this can look harsh. Even if you only have three rows in your garden, be sure to gradually increase the heights from front to back. Lastly, don’t feel like everything in a certain row has to be the same height–vary the height range within the row to maintain an organic look.

Overall, keep it simple! Focus on a few colors, heights and textures, and repeat them in your landscape as you see fit. Adding too many colors without an overarching theme or sense of cohesiveness will end up looking a bit busy like the landscape example below.

Choosing Grass Seed

While trees and shrubs can be exciting, we can’t overlook the most common foundation of a landscape–grass! To grow and maintain a great lawn, it all comes down to selecting the best grass seed for your yard. Here are some tips to help make the right choice:

1. Find your grass climate: Just like plants, certain types of grass grow best in certain climates. When it comes to grass, choose by region–not growing zone. Refer to the map below to know where your home falls.

2. Determine your sunlight conditions: Most lawns fail because the grass isn’t compatible with the amount of sunlight in the yard. Look at your notes from earlier in this course to see where the sun is most intense. Then, follow the chart below to get an idea of which grass would be best for your area.

3. Select the grass types: Don’t think you are limited to just one kind of grass. Grass seed comes in mixes and blends which give you a greener, lusher, and more resilient lawn. Below are our top suggestions for the grass that will do best for your lifestyle. Just make sure your choice matches up with the growing information above.

• For a kid-proof turf, look for mixes that contain two or more of the following:

• Tall fescue
• Fine fescue
• Kentucky bluegrass
• Zoysia
• Bermuda
• Bahia

• For shaded areas, look for mixes that contain two or more of the following:

• Rough bluegrass
• Chewings fescue
• Tall fescue
• St. Augustine
• Centipede
• Bahia
• Zoysia

• For sun and shaded areas, look for mixes that contain two or more of the following:

• Kentucky bluegrass
• Fine fescue
• Perennial ryegrass
• Bermuda
• Centipede
• Zoysia

Popular Grass Types and Their Characteristics

Tall Fescue	Fine Fescue	Ryegrass	Bermuda	Zoysia
Low maintenance	Low maintenance	Low maintenance	Low maintenance	Moderate maintenance
Cool and warm zones	Cool to warm zones	Cool to transition zones	Warm to transition zones	Warm to transition zones
Shade and heat tolerant with bright color	Moderate shade tolerance, gray spot resistant, cold tolerant	Rapid growth, long growing season and shiny leaves	Fast and dense growth with high drought and salt tolerance	Shade tolerant, deep green color with a coarse texture

4. Figure out how much you need: Once you know which type you want, now you have to figure out how much you need. To start, look at your base map and see how many square feet you will need to cover. Then, determine if you’re starting from no grass or simply supplementing your existing lawn.

• For sod: This is like an instant lawn that rolls out. We suggest contacting a professional in this case. The preparation for installing sod will depend highly on the current state of your lawn. While this is a more expensive option, you’re paying for convenience and “instant” results.
• For seed: We encourage you to do it on your own! Use the seed calculator on our grass seed product pages to determine how much you’ll need depending on the current state of your lawn.

For more detailed information about everything you need to know about grass, check out our Mini Grass Seed Course.

Grass Alternatives

If grass is not your style, or your climate isn't conducive to growing a healthy lawn, explore these unique options that can give you the feel, look, and function of a lawn–without the grass.

• Clover (great for dog owners as it doesn’t yellow from urine)
• Moss (this only works in very heavily shaded areas)
• Vinca
• Thyme
• Corsican mint
• Sedges
• Creeping Wire Vine
• Sedum (does best in low traffic areas with full sun)
• Woodruff
• Creeping Jenny
• Wildflowers

Be creative and work with the landscape you have! Below, we've included a real life example of how one homeowner mixed grass with groundcover and other grass alternatives to create a lush, colorful lawn.

Helpful Tools

Landscaping can be difficult, even with a plan to follow, so if you find yourself stuck or unsure where to start, here’s some tools to help you out!

• FGT Plant Finder: Not sure where to begin? Our quick and easy Plant Finder can lend a hand! Answer a few simple questions about the area you’re shopping for, and we’ll provide our best plant recommendations.
• FGT Yard Planner: You can also use our Yard Planner tool to create customized lists based on your landscape. Simply log in and choose the “My FGT Yard Planner” option in the left hand menu. This allows you to organize your yard into different helpful lists.
• Extension Websites: If you need some specific or native plant recommendations, look no further than your local extension office. Extension offices are located in every county and state. They’re tied to the local land-grant university and have experts to answer questions specific to your location. Search your local extension office contact information or look online, as most have great resources available already.

Now that you have some strategy to your shopping, take what you’ve learned and give it a go! Choosing and sorting plants according to their needs, and keeping things like color, shape, texture, and height in mind will go a long way for your landscape. And planning ahead and choosing the right varieties for your space doesn’t have to be hard–a little prep work now will pay off for both your plants and for you. Happy shopping!

Don't forget to download and print our Plant Selection Worksheet to help pick your plants and determine where they'll go and what care they'll need.

Plus, view the rest of our Landscape Design 101 course to keep learning and transform your landscape! And be sure to check out our wide selection of trees and shrubs to meet all your shopping needs.