Designing a Garden in Layers

These five principles will help your garden get more depth and dimension

What do the just gardens all have in mutual ? Afocal full point — yes . Great works variety — yes . But more often than not , you ’ll mark that a truly beautiful landscape also has distinctive layering . This help give a garden dimension and also makes it face lush . Layering can be done in both large andsmall spacesas well if you take after a few fundamental gradation . First , you need to progress a compelling linchpin to the seam . Then , install a diverse and varied midsection before finally addingground covers , which provide interest at toe level . But layer — without overcrowding — is catchy . There is far more to it than simply put tall plants in the back and short plants in the front . The conform to are concepts I apply in my designs to get a garden that is like an expert layered and filled with profundity and proportion .

Learn more : Plants for a Layered - Style Garden

Use Repetition of Plants or Color

Several eccentric and size of it of cosmetic skunk and sedums are scattered throughout the layer in this area . Purple ( in various shades ) also helps pull things together from the back ( with the towering butterfly bush ) to the front ( with the ‘ Blue Hill ’ salvia ) . The force is a layered garden that is disgorge over with persistence .

1 . Giant feathering grass(Stipa gigantea , Zones 6–9 )

2 . gloomy oat grass(Helictotrichon sempervirens , Zones 4–8 )

3 . ‘ Nanho Purple ’ butterfly stroke bush(Buddleia davidii * ‘ Nanho Purple ’ , Zones 5–9 )

4 . ‘ Autumn Joy ’ sedum(Sedum‘Autumn Joy ’ , Zones 4–9 )

5 . Blue Hill salvia(Salvia sylvestris‘Blauhugel ’ , Zones 4–9 )

See invasive alarum below .

Install a Sturdy, Four-Season Backbone

Although you might think the sales booth of conifers and large evergreen at the very back of this bed are the bone , it ’s really the barberry and boxwoods that give this garden its dead on target framework . convey them into the centre of the bed to mingle lets them dissemble as evergreen focal points . The surrounding perennial and yearly are purposely kept depressed so that the real pearl can shine .

1 . imperial Nipponese barberry(Berberis thunbergiif.atropurpureacv . , Zones 4–9 )

2 . Dwarf English boxwood(Buxus sempervirens‘Suffruticosa ’ , Zones 5–8 )

3 . ‘ calcium light ’ flowering tobacco(Nicotiana‘Limelight ’ , one-year )

4 . ‘ galvanic Blue ’ penstemon(Penstemon heterophyllus‘Electric Blue ’ , Zones 6–10 )

5.‘Himalayan Border Jewel ’ fleeceflower(Persicaria affinis‘Himalayan Border Jewel ’ , Zones 3–8 )

6 . grim star creeper(Isotoma fluviatilis , Zones 5–9 )

Add Underplanting for Another Level of Interest

There ’s no deny that the star of this area is the plant at understructure level . The bearberry cotoneaster shower over an unobserved stone retaining wall while filling in underneath the creeping gunnera , which was take for its contrast leaf shape . The Scots heather adds a color to echo the red berries of the cotoneaster and contribute a feathery , evergreen plant , contrast texture , while the material body of the sword fern offer more dividing line in its upright form . All of this happens in just a few groundwork , proving that attentive underplanting allows layering in any size space .

1 . Bearberry cotoneaster(Cotoneaster dammeri , Zones 5–8 )

2 . cringe gunnera(Gunnera magellanica , Zones 7–9 )

3 . Scotch heather(Calluna vulgariscv . , Zones 4–9 )

4 . Western brand fern(Polystichum munitum , Zones 5–9 )

Ensure a Mix of Shapes in the Midsection

The heart does n’t involve to be filled with only modestly sized plants . Here , several tall , interestingly mould treasures like regal lily and alpine sea holly jut out from beneath well - behaved , mounded perennials below . The consequence is dramatic and middle - catch and allow more plants to be packed into the same middle region of the garden .

1 . Regal lily(Lilium regale , Zones 4–8 )

2 . Alpine sea holly(Eryngium alpinum , Zones 2–8 )

3.Nettle - leaved mullein(Verbascum chaixii , Zones 5–8 )

4 . Jerusalem sage(Phlomis tuberosa , Zones 6–9 )

5 . Bloody geranium(Geranium sanguineum , Zones 3–9 )

Color and texture play roles in layering.The lacy silver weeping pear (Pyrus salicifolia‘Pendula’, Zones 4–8) is underplanted with regal lily, nettle-leaved mullein, a bold-leaved purple heuchera (Heucheracv., Zones 5–9) and finely cut bloody geranium.

Get the Scale Right

Beds border a groundwork can be the dodgy to layer because you do n’t need plants that are too tall block the views . A moderately sized shrub like the barberry provides a nice backdrop that does n’t overwhelm the individual - story house . The next stratum is an array of mound perennials and annuals that are on a smaller scale for stay in check with the low - visibility planting .

2 . Plum - odourise iris(Iris graminea , Zones 5–8 )

4 . ‘ Black Prince ’ snapdragon(Antirrhinum majus‘Black Prince ’ , annual )

Sharon’s Top Layering Plants

I have a bevy of favourite when it add up to the best layering plants . The keep abreast are my go - to options for each section of the bottom .

Backbone Plants

1. Joe Pye weed(Eutrochium purpureum)

Zones:4–9

Size:5 to 7 feet magniloquent and 2 to 4 feet wide

Conditions : Full sunshine to partial shade ; moist , well - enfeeble soil

2. Nettle-leaved mullein(Verbascum chaixii)

Zones:5–8

Size:3 to 4 foot tall and 1 to 2 feet wide

Conditions : Full sunlight ; well - drain soil

3. Mexican orange(Choisya ternata)

Zones:7–10

Size:4 to 8 feet improbable and broad

Conditions : Full sunshine to partial subtlety ; well - drained land

Midsection

4. Variegated purple moor grass

(Molinia caeruleasubsp.caerulea‘Variegata’)

Size:1 to 3 feet tall and wide

5.‘Brilliant’ sedum(Sedum spectabile‘Brilliant’)

Zones:4–8

Size:18 to 24 inch tall and wide

6. Monch’s aster(Aster frikartii‘Monch’)

Zones:5–10

Size:2 to 3 feet tall and 12 to 18 column inch wide

Understory

7. Bearberry cotoneaster(Cotoneaster dammeri)

Size:8 to 12 inches tall and 4 to 6 feet wide-eyed

8. ‘Himalayan Border Jewel’ fleeceflower

(Persicaria affinis‘Himalayan Border Jewel’)

Zones:6–8

Size:6 to 8 inches grandiloquent 18 to 36 inches wide

condition : Full sun ; moist , well - drained soil

9. Bloody geranium(Geranium sanguineum)

Zones:3–9

Size:8 to 12 inches grandiloquent and 1 to 2 animal foot broad

Sharon Nyenhuis is a garden decorator in Sequim , Washington .

Photos : Danielle Sherry ; Courtesy of Bruce Nyenhuis ; Steve Aitken ; Clive Nichols / gapphotos ; Colleen Fitzpatrick ; Ann E. Stratton ; Kerry Ann Moore ; Michelle Gervais

*Invasive alert: Butterfly bush (Buddleia davidii)

This plant is considered trespassing in CA , DE , NJ , OR , TN , and WA .

Please visitinvasiveplantatlas.orgfor more information .

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