Gardening to the max: Go big or go home

New gardeners are usually told to “start small” and see how things go before biting off more than they can chew.

Others just prefer to keep things modest, either to hold down maintenance or to avoid anything close to overgrown chaos.

Then there are the “maximalist gardeners.”

This is the latest buzz term for those who toss out rules and inhibitions, who lean to big plants in bold colors, and who always have room for one more plant.

The National Garden Bureau describes it this way: “Maximalism involves the exuberant use of color and lush layers to create a rich, brilliant, interesting space. It evokes an ‘anything goes’ vibe in the garden” and embraces a look that’s “over the top and never dull.”

In other words, it’s gardening to the max.

“The style has its root in the art, fashion, and design worlds, leaning into a more-is-more mentality,” writes Teresa Woodard in her new book called, “Garden to the Max: Joyful, Visionary, Maximalist Design” (Timber Press, 2025, $40 hardcover). “It’s the opposite of minimalism with its neutral colors, tidy spaces, and restrained accessories. Maximalism embraces strong colors, textures, and layers to create a space packed with personality and joy.”

Woodard says some of the hallmarks of a maximalist garden are:

They’re packed wall-to-wall with plants. That not only creates a lush, vibrant look that max gardeners like, but it means plenty of plant diversity that’s good for wildlife and the eco-system in general.

The plants are showy. Think big, red hardy hibiscus flowers – the ones blooming now that are as big as the end of a trombone. Think dinner-plate dahlias, purple alliums the size of softballs, and six-foot-tall sunflowers screaming in fiery red-orange. If it’s big, bold, textural, colorful, or otherwise head-turning, it’s a max-garden candidate.

Max gardens tend to defy conventional rules. What carries the day instead is the eye and personality of the creator. If it brings joy, it fits. A flowing mass of flowers of every shape and color? Fine. Boxwoods trimmed into turtle shapes? Check. A statue of a man-sized metal frog smoking a cigar? Perfectly OK.

Embellishments are welcome. Objects play key supporting roles to the plant stars — and sometimes are stars themselves. These can include statues and obelisks, Adirondack chairs painted to match a favorite flower color, large urns, fountains and water features, a fire pit, interesting fences and gates, and one-of-a-kind antiques or yard-sale finds.

Woodard, who hails from Columbus, Ohio, profiles 20 maximalist gardeners from across the U.S. in her book.

One thing they all have in common, she says, is that “when it comes to plants, they agree that our Earth needs more rather than less.”

One garden profiled is Jim Charlier’s small urban garden in Buffalo, N.Y.

Charlier’s place has long been a favorite fixture on Garden Walk Buffalo, which is the nation’s biggest annual garden tour and happens to be a hot spot for the max-gardening style.

This year’s 30th-anniversary tour takes place this weekend, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. July 26 and 27. More than 300 gardens are open for gazing, and it’s all free, self-guided, and no tickets required.

Most Buffalo Garden Walk gardens are small gardens packed with plants and interesting accessories, such as the yard with a tree made out of blue wine bottles, a backyard that’s been turned into a children’s garden, and the yard with the bowling-ball totem pole.

Charlier’s small yard has no grass but does have 100 containers, seven fountains, assorted ornaments, glass-art flowers made out of colorful dishes, numerous “pocket gardens,” and the highlight — a custom-built potting shed lined with a Harry Potter-themed garden.

This is all packed into a 50-by-116-foot lot, which includes Charlier’s purple-trimmed Dutch Colonial home adorned with window boxes overflowing with blooming and trailing annuals.

Among other max gardeners profiled by Woodard and photographer Bob Stefko:

• Detroit urban gardener Lisa Waud, whose yard gives a lush feel from columnar trees and vines such as clematis, wisteria, grapevines, and hops.
• Portland, Ore., gardener Zoe van Baaren, who paints doors, fences, and ornaments vivid colors and then matches surrounding plants to that color.
• Pittsburgh gardener J.P. Malocsay, who weaves his own fences and trellises out of branches, which he calls “twiggeries.”
• Penn State graduate Lauren Springer of Fort Collins, Colo., who goes big with texture on her five-acre property — strappy yuccas, prairie of buffalo grass, low-water perennials, ornamental grasses, and a rock garden of cactus, succulents, and conifers.
• Jared and Liz Hughes of Marengo, Ohio, who lean toward “funky, rare, and even ‘ugly’ plants” that they plant in “squiggly ribbons” of color.
• Kevin Prall and Layne Bennett of New Kensington, whose tropical-feel urban garden won Best Front Yard award in 2019 Better Homes and Gardens contest. These admitted “zone pushers” grow palms in Zone 6 by wrapping them over winter in burlap, foam boards, and fiberglass insulation, then stringing them with holiday lights.

Woodard notes that max gardening is more than just “throwing everything and the kitchen sink at a space and seeing what sticks. There’s great artistry in curating maximalist collections. There’s finesse in using bold colors. There are tricks for daringly growing tropical plants outside their traditional growing zones. And there’s a skill to magically layering plants without creating garden chaos.”

Some tips she offers for doing that:

1.) Pick a color palette and repeat colors within it throughout the garden. Match the colors to house trim and accessories.

2.) Arrange plants in groups so that each member ties in with the color, shape, and texture of neighboring group members.

3.) Create garden “rooms” in which distinct areas have a cohesive theme or look, such as a tropical retreat, a wildflower mini-meadow, or a shaded fern grotto.

4.) Layer plants for depth. “Think of it as painting with plants,” Woodard says. “Use taller plants as the background, followed by a mid-layer, then low-growing plants and groundcovers in the foreground.”

5.) Make use of vertical space. Columnar trees, taller plants, and vines growing up trellises are among the tools to do that.

6.) Think through all the seasons. Plan so that the garden is always changing but always displaying something of interest throughout the year.

“Maximalism isn’t just about excess,” Woodard adds. “It’s about celebrating the joy of gardening in an unapologetically abundant way.”

If you’re in the market to “max out” your yard, here are some of the showier plants that do well in Pennsylvania gardens:

Trees and shrubs: Japanese maple, roses, hydrangeas, Black Lace and Lemony Lace elderberry, Tiger Eye sumac, dark-leafed or golden ninebark, tree peony, clematis, ‘Whipcord’ arborvitae, Japanese umbrella pine, goldthread falsecypress, golden Hinoki cypress, crape myrtle, magnolia, purple smoketree.

Perennials: hardy hibiscus, peony, coralbells, golden or variegated Japanese forest grass, golden sedge, ‘Sun King’ aralia, baptisia, black-eyed susans, goldenrod, heliopsis, yucca, ferns, Joe Pye weed, hollyhock, lilies, rodgersia, foxglove.

Annuals and tropicals: Persian shield, Rex begonias, fuchsia, bananas, potted standards and topiaries, cannas, thousand-bloom sunflowers, monstera, fan palms, dahlias, agave, elephant ears, phormium, croton, fatsia, Mexican sunflower, zinnias, begonias, celosia, coleus, amaranthus, crown imperial, Globemaster allium, agapanthus, mandevilla, Mexican bush sage.

For more on the 10 most beautiful flowers for Pennsylvania yards, go here.