Landscaping Plants for the Backyard

Living Walls and Borders

• If your landscaping plans require some dividing wall to create privacy in the backyard, think creatively about how you can use plants to define space and create height. For a traditional approach, select shrubs that grow well as hedges, such as barberry, boxwood, hawthorn or osage orange. If you'd like a more innovative approach, create a "living wall" by planting wide-spreading plants along the top of a wall. Use marine plywood and corrugated plastics to create a frame along one side of the wall, along which you can plant tillandsias and bromeliads such as neoreglia.

Pond Plantings

• Add drama and variety to your landscape by selecting aquatic plants to go in a small backyard pond. Strike a balance between emergent, submergent and floating species. Emergents send their long stalks out of the water, including cattails, arrowhead and water lilies. Submergent plants, such as elodea, will help keep the pond water clear. Finally, floating plants add interest to the surface of your pool. Combine various textures, such as delicate duckweed and water lettuce or water hyacinth.

Specimen Trees

• Add height, color and possibly even fruit with a few well-placed specimen trees. A specimen tree is any species that's planted especially for its appearance, usually spaced well away from other plantings as a stand-alone accent. Depending on the size of your yard, you might plant a small Japanese maple, with brilliant-red fall color, or a mimosa, which offers vibrant blossoms in the summer. A flowering crabapple provides attractive fruits as well as pink blossoms in the spring.

Edible Landscaping

• You needn't restrict edible crops to a strictly agricultural garden patch. Incorporate productive plants into various aspects of your landscape design. Strawberries add a dash of bright color and attractive leaves, whether hanging or planted in small beds. Use a variety of herbs as low borders. The varied foliage will set off the colors of flower beds and add interesting texture.