5 Ways to Decorate Your Deck or Patio With Plants

5 Ways to Decorate Your Deck or Patio With Plants - bigroofus

Dressing up an empty deck is easy. You just need some great plants. Here are 5 ways you can deck out your deck with flowers and foliage.

Table of Contents

  • Tip 1: Group Containers for a Big Effect
  • Tip 2: Create a Color Theme
  • Tip 3: Go Low Maintenance
  • Tip 4: Plant for Privacy
  • Tip 5: Attract Butterflies to Your Deck

Tip 1: Group Containers for a Big Effect

Container gardening is so easy, but just one container can feel kind of lonely. Plant multiples of the same container or group, varying sizes to perk up your patio with color.

Pack containers with showy, easy-care annuals such as petunias, bacopa and sweet potato vine. These and other annuals offer lush foliage and flowers all summer long.

Other colorful container picks include:

  • Lantana: Easy-care flower that doesn’t require lots of water
  • Hibiscus: Tropical with large showy flowers
  • Scaevola (also called fan flower): Heat-tolerant, cascading plant

Group containers — tall, medium and small ones — to make a stunning deck focal point.

Tip 2: Create a Color Theme

Choose flower colors that complement your house, deck or outdoor furniture. For a hot palette, choose flowers such as red verbena, orange marigolds and yellow sunflowers. If you want to create a more subdued look, plant with cooler colors such as blue salvia, white bacopa and gray-leafed licorice plant.

Tip 3: Go Low Maintenance

Spend more time relaxing or entertaining on your patio by choosing plants that need little care. For example, succulents don’t require a lot of water, have few pests and diseases, and look great all the time.

Succulents offer texture and color. Plants include:

  • Sedums: Low growing and colorful options
  • Sempervivens: Tightly clumped hens and chicks
  • Echeverias: Offer fleshy and colorful leaves

With such easy-care plantings, you can spend more time enjoying the outdoors and less time fussing over your flowers.

Tip 4: Plant for Privacy

Create a secluded haven on your deck by planting small trees in containers to block the view of neighbors. Try these:

  • Evergreen trees such as arborvitae, cypress or juniper
  • Flowering standards such as roses (Knock Out is an especially disease-resistant rose)
  • Tree-form versions of popular shrubs such as lantana and hibiscus

Tip 5: Attract Butterflies to Your Deck

Pack window boxes, railing planters and containers with butterfly favorites such as butterfly bush, zinnias and verbena. It’s a guaranteed way to have live entertainment outside your door while giving nature a boost, too. For tips on other plants to choose, see Plant a Butterfly Garden.