Landscape Feature Planning: Part 2

So, you’re inspired to add some plants to your yard- right on! Well-designed landscaping adds to your property’s curb appeal... which in turn... adds to the value of your home (and makes it look just darling!) Now don’t get me wrong, it’s easy to get overwhelmed without any professional assistance. That's why I've created this as a no-fluff three-part series. 

• Part 1- Asking the right questions 
• Part 2- Choosing your plants
• Part 3- Designing your feature (releases April 22nd, 2026)

Grab your notebook and a fun drink because you’re about to complete the second step in designing your new landscape feature!

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    Plants: the meat and potatoes of landscape planning. With so many options, choosing plants can be the most daunting part of the process. We're going to walk through your plant options in a way that you can easily filter out ones that will work beautifully, and also plants that aren't recommended for your specific feature requirements.

    First up, you should know size absolutely matters, and that’s where we will begin. Make sure to grab a notebook & pen to take notes of plants that stand out to you. (Plants with an asterisk* have native varieties if you're looking for easy-care plants that support your local wildlife!)

Scale

Credit: 

PaulMaguire / Getty Images- Medium trees and shrubs along fence

Let’s start with our woodies and grasses because they set the year-round framework for the structure of your feature. Yep, the "boring" part usually comes first! 

Use the scale determined in your answer in Part 1. Feel free to research varieties, their mature height and width, colors, bloom time, etc. Depending on your scale, pick a few (or a lot) of options that excite you!

• For big spaces, along a tall fence, or if you have tall surrounding buildings, you’re going to need bigger pieces to keep your project in balance. You’ll be focusing on clumpy tall grasses and the year-round structure of trees, bushes, and/or shrubs. Remember that your house doesn’t like being the tallest thing on your property!
• Clumping grasses like big bluestem*, Feather Reed grass, prairie dropseed*, miscanthus, or switchgrass.
• Larger flowering shrubs like hydrangea*, azalea, ninebark, dogwood*, lilac, or weigela. 
• Medium sized trees like birches, mulberry, pear or apple, buckeye, and Hawthorne*.
• For smaller scale projects (under 50 sq ft), you can choose 1 or 2 “focus” pieces that will give year-round structure. 
• This could be a flowering shrub like hydrangea*, azalea, ninebark, dogwood*, lilac, or weigela. 
• You could instead choose evergreen/s like boxwood, arborvitae, or dwarf alberta spruce. Some fun evergreens include santolina, lamb’s ear, wall germander, autumn fern
• Understory trees/ shrubs like Japanese maple, redbud, serviceberry*, and witchhazel* are other options
• Grasses are great! Try little bluestem, feather reed grass, prairie dropseed, or switchgrass

Recipe

Next, we need a plant recipe to follow after you’ve narrowed down your largest pieces. Similar to container gardening’s “Thriller, filler, spiller” plant combinations, landscaping also has a special combination that makes choosing plants easier. It’s called the Trifecta Planting Method, and it focuses on the shape of your plants. We will come back to this step later, don’t bother too much to begin. 

Trifecta planting method

• 20% Spike

• 

  Flower Patch Farmhouse visual of Trifecta Planting Method
  

  Plants that shoot upward in a linear/ spiked manner. It doesn’t have to be pointy
• Delphinium, Climbing Rose, arborvitae, hollyhock, columbine, salvia, spirea, agastache, allium, dogwood, iris
• 40% Mound
• Flowers and shrubs that grow in a dense domed shape
• Ex. Weigela, coreopsis, lamb’s ear, catmint, roses, hydrangeas, peonies, lilac, yew, lavender, boxwood, geranium
• 40% Fans/ Fillers
• Anything that cascades upwards and outward. Can fill in an area.
• Ex, Daylily, Coneflower, daisies, yarrow, anemone, Ferns, grasses, phlox, baptisia, Black-eyed Susan, hostas
  

(Note: This method is quite subjective, especially depending on specific varieties that are chosen. However, using as a general frame of reference is helpful)

Customizing your feature

Now that we know our scale and an easy recipe for success, we’re at the point of choosing all of our beautiful plants! This section will cover the other questions answered in the first section and give you plant recommendations at each step along the way. 

Zones

    Remember the zones we talked about earlier? Zone 1 being closest to the home and most accessible, Zone 5 being unmanaged or “wild.” You’ll use the zone of your feature location to determine the intensity of care you will offer these plants. 

 Zone 1-2

    Zone 1 and 2 are closest to the home, meaning you will be seeing this feature often, coming into contact with it, walking through it, maintaining, and resting amongst it. Additionally, these zones are likely to be accessible to a water source, making it easy to water. 

    Because of these reasons, Zone 1 and 2 features are able to host needier plants who may need deadheaded often, may have intense watering needs, or may just be generally dramatic. On the other hand, to make your space dreamier, consider adding fragrant annual or perennial herbs that you can pick for your meals or just sit back and enjoy. 

• Try: Peonies, Roses, Shasta Daisies, Lavender, Rosemary, Cardinal Flower*, Astilbe, ligularia, joe pye weed*

Zone 3-5

    Zones 3-5 are a walk from the entry/ exits of your home. You may see these spaces often, but you don’t come here to hangout. This could be a mailbox feature, along the fence, or on “that” side of the house.

    For these zones, you’ll want to prioritize low-maintenance plants. Native species are a great pick for these areas due to their cool-as-a-cucumber attitude. You can also look for drought-tolerant species, or species that don’t require pruning or seasonal maintenance. 

• Try: Allium*, hostas, Russian sage, Leadplant*, Daylilies, Salvia, Pale Purple Coneflower*, Sedum, Yarrow, rattlesnake master*, grasses, Baptisia*, Blazing Star*, Penstemon* 

    Sun path

• Full sun. 6+ hours of direct sunlight
• Full sun, drought resistant plants- Aster*, Coneflower*, milkweed*, daylily, black eyed susan*, daisy, iris*, peony, poppy, lavender, bee balm*, catmint, penstemon*, blazing star*
• Partial sun. 4-6 hours of direct sunlight, or 6+ hours of shaded/ partial sunlight. 
• Shade loving plants- Hostas, astilbe, bleeding hearts, heuchera, ferns, hydrangea*, lungwort, solomon’s seal*, columbine, brunnera, Jacob’s ladder, hellebore, skimmia, marsh marigold*

    Goals of your feature

• To hide unsightly views?
• Focus on evergreens, shrubs, or trees with low or cascading branches. 
• To attract pollinators?
• Consider perennials like milkweed*, lavender, chives/ allium*, butterfly bush, poppies, goldenrod*, echinacea*, beebalm*, aster*, rudbeckia*, blazing star*, joe pye weed*, Mountain mint*, Sedum
• To create a hang-out area?
• Smell good plants like lavender, jasmine, lilac, butterfly bush, rosemary, lemon balm, perennial mints (double check spreading habits- some will take over your space, and some are slower to multiply) 
• To add four season color and interest?
• Mix and match some of these guys:
• Spring- virginia bluebells, poppies, peonies, tulip or daffodil bulbs, creeping phlox, lilac
• Summer- Weigela, butterfly bush, allium*, bee balm*, catmint, Culver’s Root*, Milkweed*, echinacea*, penstemon*
• Fall- Serviceberry*, asters*, goldenrod*, blazing star*, lobelia cardinalis/ siphilitica*, witch hazel*, paw-paw, little blue stem*
• Winter- Witch hazel*, evergreens, heuchera, Sedum, Lady’s Mantle, lavender, dogwood*, goldenrod*, Bush-clover*
• To add shade?
• Try small to medium sized trees, or vines like over a pergola structure.
• Pro-tip for vines: if you need cover.. Like now.. Plant a perennial vine for some delayed gratification, but also plant an annual vine amongst the perennial. The annual has a quicker growth habit since it’s only got one year to make its magic happen, and will give you cover while the perennial is maturing.  

AMAZING! Look at your list of plants and pat yourself on the back. Now before we do anything else...

• If you have any special plants that you are in LOVE with that need to make your list, add them now. 
• If you need another drink or snack to maintain motivation, now is the time. We're in the home stretch!

Sort

    The next step is taking your list of plants and organizing them into groups of spikes, mounds, and fans. For extra points, open a web browser and take note of color, bloom time, and height. I like prairiemoon.com. Return to the Recipe heading and sort your species list into the trifectas.  

Balance

    So, you have everything sorted into their trifectas, and possibly the color, bloom time, and height. Nice work, you're almost done with Part 2 of the series! Remember the Trifecta Planting Method calls for your landscape to be divided into 20% Spike, 40% Mound, and 40% Fan. If you’re anything like me, your Spikes are out of control. If you feel like you might need to do some rebalancing or narrowing down, try these tips:

• I’m of the opinion that most shrubs, trees, and grasses can hold down more than one of those descriptions, so use those as your ‘flex” pieces, possibly opting for more mature plants. 
• Ex. You need more variety to bolster your “Fan” group. Big Bluestem and prairie dropseed have a semi-fan growth habit, so you add those generously throughout your feature. 
• If you have a large area to work with, you may not have to cross anything off yet. The percentage in the method uses the total visual of your landscape. You can increase or decrease the total landscape ratio by using mass or fragmented plantings. 
• Ex. I have tons of spikes on my list, but barely any mounds. When designing your layout, plant your Spikes in groups of 1- 3, but plant any Mounds in groups of 5-7. 
• Do you have very similar height profiles? Consider purchasing a mix of plant sizes. Plant 5 gallon shrubs/ trees and 1 gallon trees, or use a mix of 1 gallon & plug perennials. By planting a mix of maturity levels, your feature will naturally create visual depth from the beginning, and mimic a layered environment. Over the years as plants grow taller or spread wider, the design will change and naturalize to the site’s growing conditions. 

By this point, you have a customized plant list for your specific landscape feature. Beautiful! The final part to this series will guide you through designing your feature by placing your plants in a way that is cohesive and pleasing to the eye. See you for Part 3 on April 22nd!

Feeling overwhelmed? Stop by Sunshine Garden Center in Diamond, IL and ask for Courtney or book a consultation with Sarah by emailing sarah@sunshinegardencenter.com.