Aerial view of formal garden with flower beds, hedges, and lawn area.

Garden Design

Are you ready to turn your average-looking backyard into a lush, vibrant paradise that will become the envy of all your friends and family? Garden design can seem intimidating at first, but with some tips from our experienced gardeners and plant lovers you can quickly learn how to transform an ordinary space into something magical. From selecting the best plants and materials to optimizing planting areas and cultivating biodiversity, get ready to transform your outdoor space into a stunning oasis of nature.

21 of the Best Septic Field Plants

A horizontal image of milkweed growing in a septic drainage field, pictured on a blue sky background.

A septic field is a necessary evil but it doesn’t need to be an eyesore. Most people opt for a lawn to cover their field, but there are many other options. While you don’t want to plant any trees or shrubs over the area, you can plant something pretty. This guide gives you 21 options for dressing up your drainage area.

Your Ultimate Guide to Square Foot Gardening

A close up horizontal image of a gardener transplanting seedlings into a raised bed square foot garden.

Square foot gardening is a beginner-friendly way of cultivating healthy, super local, homegrown produce, but this space-saving method has more to it than just growing in raised beds. Keep reading to discover the roots of square foot gardening and learn what steps to take to get started with it in your own backyard.

How to Xeriscape Your Yard for Efficiency and Aesthetics

Green hostas and ferns growing along a pebble pathway lines with larger brown stones.

Have you heard of xeriscaping? Often associated with desert climates, it’s much more than succulents and cacti. This sensible landscape style conserves water, reduces garden maintenance, and provides habitat for endemic species. Learn all about its aesthetics and efficiency here on Gardener’s Path.

23 of the Best Defensive Plants for Your Landscape

A hedge of pyracantha outside a home makes an impenetrable barrier.

If you want to feel more secure in your home, consider Mother Nature’s finest biological razor wire. We take a look at 23 of the best thorny, spiky, and downright scary plants to add to your landscape for the ultimate intruder deterrent. Learn how to use defensive plants in your garden for home security. Read more now.

How to Create a Fragrant Garden Plan

A close up horizontal image of a wooden bench set in the garden amongst flowers and other plants.

Are you interested in growing a fragrant garden? Adding aromatics can help promote your well-being by relaxing and rejuvenating you. Create the fragrant garden of your dreams with a seasonal plan, and feel inspired by scent-sational plants highlighted in our guide. We give you the framework to make it your own!

Promoting Pollination by Design: How to Attract Pollinators

A close up of a path through a garden flanked on both sides by a dazzling array of flowering plants. In the background is a bench seat and a house in soft focus.

Do you want to garden with a purpose, one that goes beyond ornamental enjoyment? When you choose your next plant, make it a nectar-rich flowering variety that’s endemic to the US. Read on to discover a host of choices, and start attracting pollinators like bees, butterflies, and other beneficial insects to your yard.

How to Design a Child’s Garden

A close up horizontal image of a blonde child holding a green watering can in a flower garden pictured on a blue sky background.

Want to get your child interested in gardening and eating healthy early in life? If so, read our tips that will help you establish your child’s own garden.

Your Guide to Low-Maintenance Landscape Planning

A collection of low maintenance shrubs on hilly lawn.

Do you want to lower the maintenance and effort that you need to expend on your yard or garden to make it presentable? Are you sick of mowing the grass and trimming the shrubs? If so, our guide is for you. Get our 10 tips on planning your landscaping to avoid as much maintenance as possible.

Creepy Plants for the Garden: Scary-Looking Plants for Halloween and Beyond

A horizontal picture of a sinister looking forest with a path running through it on a misty, foggy evening.

Are you looking to spice up your Halloween display this year? Why not grow your own? Try decorating your home and yard with a collection of mysterious and scary plants just spooky enough to make your skin crawl. Read on to learn about 13 of our favorite creepy and bizarre plants to grow in your garden this October.

How to Create a Naturalized Daffodil Planting

A close up horizontal image of bright yellow daffodils growing in a lawn, blooming in the springtime.

Naturalized daffodils are great for hard-to-landscape areas and can last for decades, providing springtime color year after year. To make these drifts of flowers look like they were designed by nature’s hand rather than your own, you’ll want to plan your layout before you plant in the fall. Keep reading to learn more.

How to Make Your Own Fresh Cut Flower Food

A close up of a fresh bouquet of cut flowers with a woman in a gray sweater in soft focus in the background.

Fresh cut flowers from the garden or florist are a pleasure. With nourishment, they may last a week or more. Purchased blooms may come with a packet that contains enough for the first day, but then what? Read on for easy instructions on how to replicate the contents of a flower food packet with household ingredients.

Fall Garden Planting Design Guide: Create a Cozy & Inviting Autumn Oasis

Autumnal scene in low sunshine. A metal arbor with a green vine is surrounded by ornamental grasses and shrubs, in the background are trees in soft focus.

Create a cozy, inviting autumn oasis in your own yard by choosing the right plants and design elements. For a fall garden that delights the senses and warms the spirit, make sure to plan your design with attention to color, texture, shape, and light. To learn more about creating your own fall garden design, read on.

Spice Up Your Garden with Fall Decor: Decorating Ideas for Autumn

Straw bales with a display of autumn vegetables and fruit. A curved wicker basket with the fresh produce cascading out of it. In the background are flowers, yellow and red.

Spice up your fall garden with seasonal decorations, ranging from the classic (pumpkins and straw bales) to the whimsical (lanterns and fairies). Whether elegant or rustic, bring hints of harvest season warmth to your outdoor landscape this autumn. Read on for ideas to complete your very own fall garden decor.

15 Creative Uses for Bricks in Landscape and Garden Design

A flower bed separated from a grassy lawn by a brick border.

If you have a pile of bricks left over from a building project, you’ll love these 15 ideas for using them in the outdoor landscape. Durability and traditional style make bricks a timeless choice for pathways, edging, and so much more. Find functional and decorative design inspiration, right here on Gardener’s Path.

Design and Construct Gorgeous Spring Planters for Porches and Patios

A large round terra cotta flower pot filled with pansies, hellebores, forsythia, and other types of flowers and foliage, in front of a stone house.

Constructing your own container of showy annuals and perennials is an easy and fun project to welcome the springtime weather. Following just a few core design principles, you can create your own eye-catching arrangement of flowers and foliage. Read all about spring container gardening and design now on Gardener’s Path.

How to Make a Fresh and Festive Holiday Sparkle Centerpiece

Overhead shot of a centerpiece comprised of white chrysanthemums, grasses, rose hips, and twigs from the garden, at the center of a table set with two white and orange plates with cream-colored cloth napkins tied with gold ribbon on top, with silverware at each place setting, on a cream-colored tablecloth with a gold and silver snowflake pattern.

Arranging fresh flowers for the table is easy when you follow these instructions for our festive holiday sparkle centerpiece. Choose flowers from your local market, make a container from an everyday item, and use your garden’s off-season treasures to craft glittering accents. Let’s get started, here on Gardener’s Path.

USDA Plant Hardiness Zones Have Changed: What You Need to Know

USDA Hardiness Zone Changes | GardenersPath.com

Did you know the USDA Plant Hardiness Zones have changed? This introduces a new array of plants that can grow comfortably in your garden while also denying a few old favorites. Read on to learn about why these changes have taken place, and how they may affect new plantings as well as seasoned perennials.

Update Your Landscape: Get Creative with Garden Paths and Walkways

A horizontal image of a garden path between two perennial borders in bright sunshine.

Need a creative DIY project? Garden paths can add interest and practicality to the landscape, and they’re useful and attractive whether you have multiple acres or a small suburban lot. If you’re ready to make some design-savvy changes to your outdoor space, learn how to add walkways to your yard now at Gardener’s Path.

7 Tips You Need to Keep Fresh Flowers Fabulous

Instructions to keep floral arrangements looking fresh | GardenersPath.com

Do you enjoy the excitement of buying or receiving fresh cut flowers, then throw them away in disgust when they wilt in stagnant water? It’s time to learn how to make vase and dish arrangements last. Read on for 7 useful tips from the pros at Gardener’s Path, and keep your blossoms first-day fresh.

No Time To Make A Christmas Wreath? Try a Swag Instead!

DIY Evergreen Christmas Swag Tutorial | GardenersPath.com

If you love to make your own Christmas decorations but don’t have a lot of free time to handcraft a wreath, make a swag for the door instead. Fast, simple, and easy, they add a gorgeous splash of fresh seasonal color that will look good for weeks. Join us now for a step by step tutorial!

DIY Wintertime Decorative Arrangement Design: It’s a Handful of Greens Away!

DIY Wintertime Decorative Arrangement Design | GardenersPath.com

Have you flipped and scrolled through magazines and web pages, marveling at immaculately presented winter decor? It’s tempting to imagine these stunning pieces as out of reach, something of a rarity for the average gardener. But fret not! We here at Gardener’s Path have a simple and easily customizable design for you to use in your own home. If you want find yourself endlessly enjoying winter centerpieces and you hope to dazzle your holiday guests, read on to learn how you can craft your own piece from scratch.

“Ish” Gardening: Planting with Purpose

"Ish" gardening with pansies. | GardenersPath.com

“Ish” gardening is a perspective that encourages more awareness while in the garden. From old-fashioned tricks to planting with purpose and even making friends with the plants outside (no, really!), “Ish” gardening offers a fresh approach to getting our hands dirty. Read more now on Gardener’s Path.

Make a Romantic Blooming Heart Centerpiece in 6 Easy Steps

Make a Romantic Blooming Heart Centerpiece in Easy Steps | GardenersPath.com

Are you looking for a quick and easy holiday decoration? Make this Blooming Heart Centerpiece for your Valentine’s Day table. All you need is a visit to your local produce market for flowers, a run to the craft store for floral foam and ribbon, and about half an hour to put it all together. Read on for easy directions from your friends at Gardener’s Path.

Put Your Green Thumb to the Test: Arranging Foliage From Your Garden

Fall Floral Arrangement Cover | GardenersPath.com

Do you have a garden? If so, the makings of beautiful foliage arrangements are at your fingertips. Learn simple techniques for arranging flowers and greenery grown in your own backyard. From selecting containers to cutting focal flowers, this simple guide from Gardener’s Path introduces the basics of an age-old art that you’re going to love!

A Gardener’s Notes: Making Peace With Boulders

Using the Natural Enviroment In Landscaping | GardenersPath.com

Do you have a bunch of rocks in the soil in your yard that you don’t know what to do with? Make peace with what nature has provided and incorporate them into your landscape. Read on for one gardener’s view of the situation.

Reinventing the Cottage Garden to Fit Today’s Busy Lifestyle

Reinventing the Cottage Garden With Todays Busy Lifestyle | GardenersPath.com

A beautiful cottage garden will take you back in time – but you don’t need to put in hours of work to grow your own. Bring fragrance and color while you learn how to plant to avoid weeding, and to keep your plants going year after year. Learn how here on Gardener’s Path. Read more now.

Growing Flowering Vines in the Garden

Flowering vines can be a great accent or the focal point in your lawn or garden. Read about which varieties work best and how to choose the appropriate varieties for your area. Read now.

Flowering vines can be a great accent or the focal point in your lawn or garden. Read about which varieties work best and how to choose the appropriate varieties for your area. Get the complete scoop now!

Best Non-Invasive Flowering Vines to Grow in the North

Mulit-color Clematis | GardenersPath.com

Vines can make an excellent choice if you are looking for plants to grow on your property. They can enhance a property’s aesthetic beauty, add privacy, soften hard edges, and benefit the environment. Vines are generally low maintenance and can be easily trained to grow on gazebos, trellises, and arbors. Growing vines in the northern …

Read more

Winter Blooms for Your Garden

Purple Crocus | GardenersPath.com

Gardeners in temperate areas either endure winter, or defy it. Those who endure it are sustained by color catalogs from seed, bulb, and plant nurseries; those who defy it resort to greenhouses or windowsills crowded with amaryllis, forced bulbs, and foliage plants. For those of us in hibernal denial, however, there’s another outlet: find plants …

Read more

Grow Your Own Cut Flower Garden

Growing Your Own Fresh Cut Flower Garden | GardenersPath.com

A friend of mine, Mary, loves gardening and cut flowers. It only makes sense that she has her own cut flower garden, which has actually inspired me. Mary not only keeps fresh flowers in her own home; but she also makes up gorgeous bouquets to take to the elderly shut-ins, who live in her neighborhood. …

Read more

Vertical Gardening Works for Everyone

How to Create a Vertical Garden | GardenersPath.com

A vertical garden allows you to maximize your space and grow your own fruits and vegetables. Whether you are an apartment dweller or have a small cottage, this technique allows you to stick more in smaller spaces. Find out how now.

Try Our Tips to Get Started with No-Till Gardening

An organic no till vegetable garden.

Tired of the backbreaking work of getting your sod turned over year after year? It doesn’t have to be that hard. Try raised bed and lasagna style gardening for an easy fix. Read more now on Gardener’s Path.