10 Principles for an Exuberantly Abundant Landscape

After 15 years writing about home and garden design, I've absorbed countless lessons on using design to express personal style and a feeling of abundance. "Abundance" evokes largesse — a great, plentiful amount, fullness, overflowing. One designer defined it as "no dirt — anywhere!" Another: "No wimpy plants!"

People who crave abundance live a lifestyle that spills from home into garden. They're zealous, passionate, generous of spirit, loving color, texture, and form — all reflected in their planting choices.

To me, ten concepts communicate abundance:

• Color
• Views
• Timelessness
• Layers
• Intimacy
• Focal points
• Movement
• Ornamentation
• Spontaneity
• Pattern

Let's see how these ideas translate into gardens.

Color

This abundant border pulses with color — Japanese blood grass in front, rhubarb-red Sedum 'Autumn Joy' at the back. A confident, restrained palette creates powerful focal points, signaling entry points and inviting exploration.

Views

Framed vistas double a landscape's sense of abundance. This semi-wild expanse opens to endless sky and a grassy trail suggesting the world's edge — drama and orientation in one.

Timelessness

No exposed soil here — mature plantings create a complete canopy and understory. Ancient live oaks tower over plump hydrangeas, heliotropes, and ajuga knitting it all together. A pergola half-hidden by healthy wisteria invites seated contemplation, thoroughly embedded in the garden.

Layers

Layering — often discussed, not always achieved — here uses prairie-inspired perennials and grasses in irregular swaths, not rows, evoking a deep, lavish border. Joe Pye weed, black-eyed Susan, Russian sage, and silver grass (Miscanthus sinensis) star.

Not everyone has a decades-old garden, but planting trees first is the ultimate abundant strategy. Emulate timelessness by encouraging a naturalistic approach: appreciate tree architecture, let mossy rocks and ground covers blanket earth, allow plants their full inherent forms, and give yourself a place to walk and contemplate. A green lawn section offers soothing rest amid towering conifers and broadleaf evergreens.

Intimacy

Narrow openings suggest privacy — a secret pathway between trees with a hidden destination. Towering trees above, a perennial border below filled with fragrant catmint, soft lamb's ear, alliums, and foxgloves enlivens all senses.

Focal Points

Multiple abundant ideas play together: timeless palette of native stone and green vegetation, a twig bench at a path's turn as an irresistible interior focal point, layered foliage textures. Generous and beckoning.

Movement and Ornamentation

Masses of ornamental grasses on a hillside convey kinetic energy — dynamic even in still air. Ornamentation is sublime in its simplicity: a bowl on a pedestal. Effortless.

Movement, Spontaneity, and Color

Abundance thrives on a patio, too. Thoughtful container gardens overflow with movement, spontaneity, and color — an alluring place to be.

Pattern

Grid-style concrete pavers give this garden intentional structure; foliage and flower colors reinforce its modern, graphic vocabulary.

Abundance is an attitude: cherishing plants, combining art and horticulture, expressing highly personal style.

Next: How to Work with Spontaneity for an Abundant Garden