Landscape Design
Gardening Guides
10 Planting Ideas to Boost Your Garage’s Curb Appeal
See how to use vines, shrubs, colorful perennials, succulents and pots to enhance this overlooked planting spot
The sides of a garage door and a space alongside a garage wall are often tough spots to plant. They can feature compacted soil and limited planting space and yet — depending on the location of your garage — they can be fairly prominent in a front yard’s design.
If you’re struggling with this area, take a look at these 10 ideas for planting along the garage. In each example, the plants help soften the building and tie it into the larger landscape, boosting the overall curb appeal of the home.
If you’re struggling with this area, take a look at these 10 ideas for planting along the garage. In each example, the plants help soften the building and tie it into the larger landscape, boosting the overall curb appeal of the home.
‘Karl Foerster’ feather reed grass, with its narrow, upright form, is a nice addition to garage-side planting beds.
2. Ornamental grasses. This side yard outside a home in Ashland, Oregon, presents a solution for a drought-tolerant garage-side planting. The designer used a combination of autumn moor grass (Sesleria autumnalis, zones 5 to 8), taller ‘Karl Foerster’ feather reed grass (Calamagrostis x acutiflora ‘Karl Foerster’, zones 4 to 9) and ‘Furman’s Red’ autumn sage (Salvia greggii ‘Furman’s Red’, Zone 7).
2. Ornamental grasses. This side yard outside a home in Ashland, Oregon, presents a solution for a drought-tolerant garage-side planting. The designer used a combination of autumn moor grass (Sesleria autumnalis, zones 5 to 8), taller ‘Karl Foerster’ feather reed grass (Calamagrostis x acutiflora ‘Karl Foerster’, zones 4 to 9) and ‘Furman’s Red’ autumn sage (Salvia greggii ‘Furman’s Red’, Zone 7).
3. Cottage-style perennial border. This cottage garden in Willow Glen, California, shows how you can create a garden bursting with life in a narrow planting strip. Plants like penstemon, salvia, gaura (Gaura lindheimeri, USDA Zone 5; find your zone) and orange lion’s ear (Leonotis leonurus, zones 8 to 11) make up a cottage-style garden that also attracts bees and butterflies.
The window frame converted into a planter is another sweet touch that adds cottage style to the side of a garage.
6 Steps to Creating Your Butterfly Garden
The window frame converted into a planter is another sweet touch that adds cottage style to the side of a garage.
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4. From above and below. For garages in sloped lots, take advantage of gradient changes for more planting opportunities. Robert Shuler, the designer for this landscape in Carmel Highlands, California, made use of the side of the garage for highlighting silvery parrot’s beak (Lotus berthelotii, zones 10 to 12) spilling down from the roof and ‘Golden Abundance’ mahonia growing up from the base. A skinny fern pine (Podocarpus gracilior, zones 8 to 10) reaches skyward from the stacked stone planter to the right of the garage.
Tip: Before planting your roof, you’ll want to consult with an engineer as to how much additional weight the roof can support. Learn more about installing a green roof.
Tip: Before planting your roof, you’ll want to consult with an engineer as to how much additional weight the roof can support. Learn more about installing a green roof.
5. Vine and potted evergreens. Vines are a great solution for adding green to garages with limited planting space.
This garage in Knoxville, Tennessee, uses a container placed between the two garage doors as a focal point as well as another planting spot for a vine (tucked behind the evergreen). This fills the gap between the two garage doors and the vines growing from the outside beds for solid green coverage.
Garage-framing foliage vines to try:
This garage in Knoxville, Tennessee, uses a container placed between the two garage doors as a focal point as well as another planting spot for a vine (tucked behind the evergreen). This fills the gap between the two garage doors and the vines growing from the outside beds for solid green coverage.
Garage-framing foliage vines to try:
- Boston ivy (Parthenocissus tricuspidata, zones 4 to 8)
- Chocolate vine (Akebia quinata, zones 5 to 9)
- Climbing fig (Ficus pumila, zones 9 to 11), if you don’t mind frequent trimming
6. Garage-framing trellis. To give garage plantings — and your home’s curb appeal — a boost, consider adding permanent trellising up and over the garage door, as was done on this home in South Carolina.
Adopt a similar style with Craftsman-style trellising painted to match your home’s exterior and potted vines that ramble up over the supports. Star jasmine (Trachelospermum jasminoides, Zone 8) and variegated ivy were used here, but other vines could be used to similar effect.
Adopt a similar style with Craftsman-style trellising painted to match your home’s exterior and potted vines that ramble up over the supports. Star jasmine (Trachelospermum jasminoides, Zone 8) and variegated ivy were used here, but other vines could be used to similar effect.
7. Flowering vine and potted flowering shrubs. This colorful iteration of the vine and potted plant duo in Charlotte, North Carolina, uses a combination of flowering wisteria and potted hibiscus to frame a double garage door. Bordering floral beds and a garage planting strip add more color and interest to the space.
Flowering vines to grow on a garage:
Flowering vines to grow on a garage:
- American wisteria (Wisteria frutescens, zones 5 to 9)
- Cimbing roses (Rosa spp.)
- Jasmine nightshade (Solanum laxum, Zone 9)
- Fragrant star jasmine (Trachelospermum jasminoides, Zone 8)
8. Low water, low maintenance. This minimalist approach to garage-side planting takes little care and adds dramatic interest to the entry. A single ‘Sticks on Fire’ milk bush succulent (Euphorbia tirucalli ‘Sticks on Fire’, zones 10 to 11) planted in the pocket of soil left between the driveway and entry walk ties in with the colors of the mailbox and warm wood garage door of this home in Orange County, California.
Cactus and succulents both make excellent choices for low-water, low-maintenance garage-side plants in arid climates. Choose ones like those from the Euphorbia genus that are spineless if there’s a chance you’ll brush against it.
Cactus and succulents both make excellent choices for low-water, low-maintenance garage-side plants in arid climates. Choose ones like those from the Euphorbia genus that are spineless if there’s a chance you’ll brush against it.
9. Built-in planter. A custom planter is another way to create garage-side planting space where none exists. This weathered steel planter framing a San Francisco entryway could easily be adapted to a garage-side setting. The planter is narrow enough to not take up much room but deep enough to hold tawny New Zealand sedge (Carex testacea, zones 6 to 10) and structural leucadendron.
10. A skinny, upright shrub. Every inch of space counts in this pint-size Southern California front yard, including the small bed by the garage. A space-saving move made by designer Sacha McCrae, of Living Gardens Landscape Design, was to choose silver-leafed Icee Blue yellow-wood (Podocarpus elongatus ‘Monmal’, zones 9 to 11) — a narrow, upright shrub — to grow alongside the garage, leaving room for other plants in the tiny space. A combination of low-water succulents, mounding ‘Elijah Blue’ fescue (Festuca glauca ‘Elijah Blue’, zones 4 to 8) and foxtail fern (Asparagus densiflorus ‘Myers’, zones 9 to 11) fill in the ground-level planting.
Tell us: What have you planted next to your garage door or alongside your garage?
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Yellow-flowering kangaroo paw plants (Anigozanthos flavidus, zones 10 to 11) stay upright in narrow garage-side beds, while the small, mounding aeonium succulents (Aeonium haworthii ‘Kiwi’, zones 9 to 11) and foxtail ferns (Asparagus densiflorus ‘Myers’, zones 9 to 11) both remain compact.