How to Make Your Late Summer Garden Look Fuller Without Planting Anything New – 7 Designer Tricks
It's all about how you style pots and create structure
As we head into late summer, gardens that were in full bloom a few weeks ago can start to look a little straggly – and dare we say, even bare in some places.
However, it's not always necessary to plant anything new to make a garden feel more abundant. Placement, positioning and layering play a big part in the overall look of your landscape. As plants grow, or flowers fade in the heat of the summer, its appearance will evolve.
As such, designers have plenty of techniques to make a landscape feel lush without more plantings. Here, gardening experts reveal the clever backyard ideas and styling tricks they employ to make a garden look fuller – just make sure to have your Fiskars gardening snips from Amazon to hand.
1. Reposition Potted Tropicals
Along with annuals, tender tropical plants are a reliable source of lush leafy foliage and vibrant summer color. Repositioning existing potted plants like these into more prominent places can make your garden look more abundant – this is a favorite trick for Matt Mattus, Senior Director of Horticulture, American Horticultural Society.
'I keep a back-up of potted tropicals and annuals that I can drop into the garden in mid to late summer, just when things are beginning to look tired,' says Matt.
'This ‘back-up garden' can simply be your deck, terrace or a walkway, even beside the garage, though most plants will look great the moment you plant them, so the deck is my first choice.
'I pot up a few tender tropicals like flowering maples, cannas, or banana plants in large tubs early in the growing season, which often don’t take off until July when it’s truly hot. Once they get too big, I move them into the garden where they suddenly look like they've always been there,' he explains.
These plant pot caddy wheels from Ace Hardware make easy work of moving containers.
Matt Mattus has been involved with horticulture since he was a kid, working in his parent’s garden, and by age 12 he was entering the local horticultural society competitions. After a creative career in design, several books on gardening, and active membership of many plant societies, today Matt sits as the Senior Director of Horticulture for the American Horticultural Society (AHS) in Washington, DC-and gardens in Massachusetts.
2. Freshen Borders with Potted Annuals
In a similar vein, flower beds and borders can look a little sparse after you have deadheaded shrubs and herbaceous perennials – or lost a couple to the heat. However, they can soon be made more bountiful by tucking potted annuals or potted foliage plants into any gaps.
'Annuals like coleus (explore the range at Plant Addicts) make terrific fillers, and even a single plant potted into a 12 or 14” pot in spring will become a mini-shrub by mid-summer,' says Matt.
'Just when they become too big for an entrance or terrace, move these pots directly into the border. The pots will be hidden by neighboring foliage, but the colorful leaves of the coleus will freshen up gaps and holes that appear in all of our gardens by late summer.
'Other potted annuals that can be treated the same way and relocated from a stairway or deck out to the garden are pots of dwarf spider flower (Cleome), wishbone flower (Torenia), vinca, rosea, and salvias. Be sure to keep up on watering,' Matt continues.
If you don't have any 'back-up' plants, this salvia April Night Meadow Sage from Plant Addicts is suitable for a pot and can be tucked into beds and borders for a more verdant display.
3. Consolidate Containers into Groupings
As summer progresses and plants in a container garden grow, a reshuffle of pots around your patio can invigorate your outside space. Landscape designer, Kat Aul Cervoni, founder Staghorn Living likes to consolidate her containers into layered groupings.
'One of the fastest ways to make a garden feel fuller is to stop scattering pots evenly and pull them into a few intentional clusters,' says Kat. 'I like to think of these layered groupings as little families.
'Place the tallest containers at the back, medium-height pots through the middle, and lower or trailing plants at the front. Even when the plant count stays exactly the same, the overlap creates a much denser, more abundant effect.
'For small patios, I would concentrate these groupings around a seating area, doorway, or garden corner rather than trying to decorate the entire perimeter,' she advises.
If you need an extra plant for your container family, this Bay Laurel Tree from Fast-Growing Trees would make an attractive and aromatic addition.
Landscape designer, Katherine "Kat" Aul Cervoni is the founder and principal of Staghorn Living. Kat creates outdoor spaces that become natural extensions of a home’s interior. A member of the Ecological Landscape Alliance and the Association of Professional Landscape Designers, she also mentors young plant enthusiasts and upcoming designers.
4. Create Height and Conceal Empty Edges
An abundant garden isn't just about beds brimming with blooms and patio filled with pot plants. A full garden consists of multiple layers of greenery at varying heights. Re-arranging planters around the perimeter can conceal empty spaces at eye level.
'Mid-summer gaps are often most noticeable along walls, fences, and property lines,' says Kat. 'I like to disguise this by repositioning the tallest existing planters, trellises, or screens toward those edges to create a stronger backdrop.
'This pulls attention upward and hides the bare areas that make a garden feel unfinished.
'I also like placing taller elements just behind furniture rather than only around the outside of the patio. It makes the planting feel wrapped around the space, which is one of the easiest ways to create a more immersive, enveloped feeling in the garden,' Kat explains.
Need an extra potted plant with some height? This lovely Arbequina olive tree from Fast-Growing Trees is suitable for patios in zones 3-11.
4. Repeat One Shape, Material or Color
Repetition is a trick used by interior designers and it works just as well in outside spaces, when you want to create a sense of cohesion. A cluttered garden, like a cluttered room, doesn't look 'full' in a good way. Paring back plants and rearranging furniture and outdoor accessories by repeating shapes or colors can pull a space together.
'A garden can feel sparse – and disorganized – when every planter, cushion, and accessory is competing for attention,' says Kat. 'Remember that repetition gives the eye something consistent to follow, which makes the whole space feel much more cohesive and established.
'That could mean grouping mismatched pots by color, repeating the same planter shape in different sizes, or limiting soft furnishings to two or three tones already found in the planting. So you’re not adding more, but the visual continuity makes everything feel richer and fuller.'
Swapping outer pots for visual continuity is made easy with this pack of two large pale gray ceramic outdoor planters from Lowe's.
6. Encourage Groundcovers to Spread
The choice of plants you make when planning or designing your garden is also key to keeping it green and lush. A good smattering of groundcovers will prevent patches of bare soil from peeping through and keep things looking lush, especially if you encourage them to spread.
'Low, spreading groundcover species can achieve a full look with low plant quantities,' says Kevin Lenhart, Design Director & Landscape Architect, Yardzen. 'These plants can range from just a few inches to a couple feet in height, but spread much wider to cover a significant area.
'Low groundcovers, like creeping thyme (which you can find at Plant Addicts), emerald carpet, or Dymondia, are particularly handy for projecting density without overdoing it. These low spreaders can be used as a kind of apron around larger moments of planting. By keeping the ground green, they maintain the illusion of fullness,' Kevin explains.
To increase plants that spread via runners, including creeping thyme and strawberry groundcovers, peg down runners at their full distance, encouraging them to set root as far outward as they can. This can be done with stones.
'Groundcovers also allow a welcome breath of air between denser pockets of planting, setting up an alternating rhythm of high to low, dense to open,' says Kevin. 'This rhythm creates dynamism, offering a more interesting narrative arc than wall-to-wall density.
'Taller species, like yarrow, blue mistflower, or 'Yankee Point' ceanothus, get to a few feet in height, and offer meaningful volume along with delicate, colorful flowers.
'These taller spreaders are especially useful in larger yards where plants need some size to suit the scale of the space,' he explains.
Kevin Lenhart is the Design Director at Yardzen and a licensed landscape architect. He is a LEED-Accredited Professional in Neighborhood Development, and holds a Master of Landscape Architecture degree from UC Berkeley’s College of Environmental Design. As a designer, Kevin’s practice is rooted in a commitment to making high-quality design available to everyone, and to using design to improve physical, cultural, and ecological well-being.
7. Divide and Redistribute
Dividing existing perennials that have grown large and unruly and redistributing them is another way to fill empty spaces and gain more even coverage.
'Many perennials grow to form ever-larger clumps, and can get a bit unsightly as they grow,' says Kevin. 'I like to avoid this fate, and get more plant coverage, by digging these plants up, dividing them and replanting them in nearby gaps to form masses of smaller, tidier individual plants.
'It’s a win-win-win situation: healthier looking plants, more coverage, no need to buy anything new. This trick works for all sorts of plants, from texture mainstays like hostas, ornamental grasses, and ferns, to native flower all stars like Joe Pye weeds, yarrow, beebalm and coneflowers,' says Kevin.
However, Kevin suggests doing some research before you start digging as many plants only like to be divided at certain times of the year.
Other species can be spread by taking cuttings and planting them in moist soil or a cup of water. 'This works for herbs like rosemary, sage and mint, and for many popular floral species, including azaleas, hydrangeas, lavender, and verbena,' says Kevin.
This steel hand trowel from Ace Hardware would be useful when digging up plants.
What to Shop
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Whatever the size of your backyard, the simple strategies and visual tricks that designers use to make a garden look fuller are easily emulated. You can even use these container plants to elevate your garden furniture for little effort.
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