When youre looking for low-maintenance garden border ideas, consider the color, texture, bloom time, and placement of your plants. Your choices will also depend on whether the border is close to a path, walkway, or driveway, or if its tucked in the backyard around a garden spot. Read on to learn about low-maintenance garden border ideas that will fit your climate and growing zones, the size and shape of your yard, and your unique garden style.
Adding plants to the borders of your yard or garden can instantly boost curb appeal and give you more color and interest. However, you don’t want to spend all your time watering, pruning and caring for high maintenance plants. The good news is there are plenty of low maintenance options that look fabulous with minimal effort.
As the owner of my landscaping company, I’m always on the lookout for beautiful plants that don’t require much upkeep Over the years, I’ve identified 18 of the best low maintenance plants that add interest along borders while still being easy to care for. Keep reading to find options that will work in sun, shade, wet areas, slopes and more.
Low Maintenance Border Plants for Sunny Areas
Full sun borders can quickly dry out so it’s essential to choose drought tolerant plants. Here are some sturdy, carefree options for borders that get 6 or more hours of direct sunlight per day
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Daylilies: These perennial flowers thrive in full sun and bloom prolifically from spring to fall. The grassy leaves stay attractive after blooms fade. Daylilies spread to form dense clumps and require little watering once established. There are endless color options too.
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Salvia: With over 900 species, this plant provides plenty of choice for flower color. The tubular blooms attract hummingbirds and butterflies from early summer into fall. Salvias tolerate heat, humidity and drought extremely well. Simply cut back spent blooms to encourage new flushes of flowers.
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Sedum: Also called stonecrop, most sedum varieties grow 12-18 inches tall in clumps. The succulent-like foliage comes in many colors and textures. Clusters of tiny starry flowers add summer and fall color. Sedums require well-drained soil and tolerate drought impressively.
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Lavender: This Mediterranean herb offers silver-gray fragrant foliage and abundant summer blooms. Compact varieties like Munstead and Hidcote stay under 2 feet tall, perfect for borders. Lavenders thrive in hot, sunny spots with dry, rocky soil. Avoid overwatering which leads to root rot.
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Verbena: With long lasting clusters of pink, purple or red flowers, verbenas bloom all summer long in borders. Cut back spent blooms to promote new growth. Verify the variety you choose is a perennial. Annual verbenas require more maintenance with reseeding each year.
Shade Loving Border Additions
For borders that get less than 6 hours of direct sun or are in the shade of trees or buildings, choose these low maintenance beauties:
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Hostas: Ranging from just inches to several feet tall, hostas offer diverse leaf shapes, colors and textures. Clusters of tubular flowers appear in summer. Hostas tolerate deep shade though variegated varieties need some sun to maintain leaf color. These perennials spread slowly, forming beautiful masses with minimal care.
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Astilbe: Also called false spirea, the fern-like foliage remains attractive all season with plumes of pink, red or white blooms in summer. Astilbes thrive in moist, shady borders. Though they spread slowly, mature clumps can be divided every 2-3 years for more plants.
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Ferns: For an elegant, lush look, ferns are ideal for shady borders. Varieties like autumn fern offer bronze new growth that matures to green. Others like ostrich fern get quite large. Most ferns spread moderately and seldom need dividing. Keep their soil consistently moist.
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Hellebores: Blooming in late winter and early spring, hellebore flowers are a welcome sight. Their nodding bell-shaped blooms come in white, pink, burgundy and green shades. Hellebores tolerate drier conditions once established and make excellent border plants for areas under trees.
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Heucheras: Also called coral bells, the evergreen leaves of these perennials shine in shady borders. The newer hybrids like ‘Caramel’ and ‘Marmalade’ offer amazing foliage colors. Airy clusters of tiny blooms appear in spring and summer. Give heucheras rich, moist soil for best growth.
Wet Area Border Plants
Low spots and areas that naturally collect moisture or runoff call for plants that love wet feet. Here are superb border options for perpetually damp areas:
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Japanese Iris: These smaller irises thrive along pond edges and other watery areas. The flat blooms offer unique patterns in shades of blue, purple, pink or white. Japanese iris spread slowly via rhizomes, forming attractive clumps. They tolerate soggy soil extremely well.
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Arrowhead: Also known as duck potato, arrowhead has bright green, arrow-shaped leaves that multiply to form colonies in shallow water. The small white flowers appear in summer. Arrowhead handles fluctuating water levels, even tolerating temporary dry spells.
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Sweetflag: With sword-shaped leaves that resemble smaller iris foliage, sweetflag thrives along pond and stream banks. Tiny greenish-brown flowers appear in summer but they aren’t the main attraction. Sweetflag spreads nicely to fill in borders along water features or wet spots.
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Cardinal Flower: The vibrant red tubular blooms of cardinal flower make a stunning border addition along moist areas in partial shade. Though short-lived, they reseed readily so you’ll enjoy this native wildflower year after year. Just keep the soil consistently damp.
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Turtlehead: Also called turtle bloom, the unique hooded flowers of this perennial come in white, pink or red. Turtlehead remains compact at just 2 feet tall and spreads slowly via rhizomes. Give it moist soil in sun or part shade. Once established, it tolerates drier periods.
Low Care Plants for Hillside Borders
Steep slopes and hillsides call for durable plants with strong root systems. Here are some excellent erosion controlling choices that require minimal care:
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Juniper: Available in spreading and upright forms, junipers make excellent hillside borders. Their extensive root systems control erosion. Both needle-like and scale-like foliage options retain year-round color too. Junipers thrive in poor, rocky soil and required little watering once established.
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Sedum: In addition to their merits in sunny borders, sedums shine on hillsides too. Their tight mats of succulent foliage and roots stabilize slopes effectively. Sedums handle drought incredibly after establishment. For best spread, choose those that produce above ground stolons.
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Vinca Minor: Known as common periwinkle, this fast growing groundcover is ideal for hillsides. The glossy green leaves quickly form a dense mat. Common periwinkle tolerates poor, dry soil. Blue flowers appear in spring but the foliage provides the main appeal year-round. It withstands mowing if needed.
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Snowberry: Small pink flowers followed by clusters of bright white berries make snowberry an attractive hillside border option. At just 2-4 feet tall, it provides color and erosion control without blocking views. Snowberry survives in poor, dry soils. Prune in late winter to shape and thin as needed.
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Switchgrass: Ornamental grasses make excellent hillside borders, and switchgrass is one of the best. Its extensive root system controls erosion and the upright form won’t obstruct views. Switchgrass thrives in poor soils and requires minimal watering once established. Rich fall color is another bonus.
Hardworking, Hassle-Free Border Plants
I hope these suggestions give you plenty of easy yet beautiful options to consider for your garden and landscape borders. I always advise planting perennials in spring or fall and watering regularly the first year. Then your new border additions will quickly establish and thrive for years to come with very little maintenance required.
Things to Consider When Choosing Low-Maintenance Garden Border Plants
- Keep it simple with blocks of color.
- Plant perennials that come back yearly and fill in with colorful annuals.
- Choose groundcovers and low-growing plants that wont need much pruning.
- Look for drought-tolerant plants.
- Consider stone or another edging to keep the border neat.
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Use Color Block Design
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@thepsychgarden / Instagram Large blocks of color can be a very striking and easily implemented strategy for the garden border. This simple mix of ajuga and anemones offers a rich burst of violet-blue in this flower bed, right at the border for maximum impact. Also try forget-me-nots which bloom profusely in pale blue in spring (deadhead them to keep them from reseeding too much, but new plants are easy to pull up). Continue to 2 of 12 below - 02 of 12
Showcase Spring Bulbs
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@thepsychgarden / Instagram Designing with spring bulbs offers lots of flexibility for three seasons of blooms and beauty. Theyre great for the front of the border for a showy garden in early spring, like this one with multiple beds showcasing tulips and daffodils at the edge of their borders. Once your bulbs begin to die back (in April and May) theres room for additional perennials to pop up and fill in. Good choices to plant near bulbs include plants with small root areas and foliage that sit up off the ground, like hostas, daylilies, asters, and ferns. Continue to 3 of 12 below - 03 of 12
Bring Colorful Foliage Forward
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@beartrapgarden / Instagram Plants with colorful foliage are a great way to have low-maintenance color at the front of the border. Artemisias provide silvery tones, heucheras provide a wonderful range of colors, euphorbias come in a range of colors and textures, and lower-growing sedums also have a range of foliage colors in blues, greens, greys, and purples. Here we see silver tansy (Tanacetum haradjanii) and Euphorbia myrsinites melding their striking colors of blue-grey and chartreuse together. Annuals with colorful foliage include coleus and caladiums. Continue to 4 of 12 below - 04 of 12
Add a Shade Border
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@thepsychgarden / Instagram The shade garden need not be barren of color. The border of this circular shade garden catches the eye with vivid clumps of burgundy heuchera, variegated euonymus, and airy light green ferns. Continue to 5 of 12 below - 05 of 12
Implement Mediterranean Style
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@edenrowegardens / Instagram In the temperate climate of southern Europe, herbs have the perfect growing environment. If you have sandy, loamy soil, plentiful sun, and a growing zone on the warmer side, consider some fragrant culinary herbs for your border. Oregano, thyme, rosemary, savory, tarragon, lavender and many other useful herbs grow as perennials in the right conditions. These lavender gardens in Spain create a perfumed paradise for visitors, with the huge plants overflowing into the walkways. Continue to 6 of 12 below - 06 of 12
Play With Height
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@themayflygarden / Instagram Usually one sees shorter plants at the front of the border, but tall ones can work too. The key is to choose plants with a small crown and a light airy form, allowing for a view of the plants behind them. This might include agapanthus, alliums, camassia, fairy lilies (a bulb that comes up in early autumn), heucheras, flax, anchusa (Dropmore), delphiniums, rose campion, anemones (pictured above), and globe thistles. Annual cosmos are also tall flowers with feathery stems and delicate blooms. The 7 Best Landscape Edging of 2025 Continue to 7 of 12 below - 07 of 12
Add Low Hedges
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@themayflygarden / Instagram This lush garden in Sweden has paths connecting one area to another. The borders along this path have short, chunky boxwood hedges clipped to stay square and neat. The angular shape complements the round and organic shapes found throughout the garden. Continue to 8 of 12 below - 08 of 12
Plant Perennial Mums
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@gardenfromscratch / Instagram Keep the show going with perennials that flower late in the season. Perennial mums are a reliable source of vivid color: order them from a reliable nursery in the spring for blooms in the fall, and the plants will increase in size each year. The striking contrast of these yellow zinnias and purple mums is a showstopper for the autumn border. Continue to 9 of 12 below - 09 of 12
Choose Drought-Tolerant Border Plants
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@beartrapgarden / Instagram If youre in a dry or desert climate, or simply want a more drought-tolerant border, theres a large variety to choose from. Euphorbias and succulents like creeping sedums or hens and chicks are an easy way to have a lush, low- maintenance border. These plants spread quickly but not aggressively and there are many flowering varieties. In this California garden, drought-tolerant plants including yarrow, euphoria, and nepeta (flowering catmint) are a perfect choice for times of inconsistent rainfall. Continue to 10 of 12 below - 10 of 12
Incorporate Creeping Plants for an Organic Look
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@gardenfromscratch / Instagram Creeping plants like euphorbia, low-spreading sedums, dianthus (especially spreading varieties like Firewitch), thread-leaf coreopsis, or short asters (like Woods Blue) can spill over the border edge in a fetching way, creating an organic looking design. Keep blooming perennials looking neat by deadheading which also encourages more blooms: this dianthus will put out a second or even third round of blooms after spent flowers are trimmed off. Continue to 11 of 12 below - 11 of 12
Use Uplifting Miniatures
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@beartrapgarden / Instagram Many perennials have low-growing, dwarf, or miniature versions, including irises (pictured are Bright Blue Eyes), columbines, asters, daylilies, sedums, and even roses. Choosing these shorter plants allows for more possibilities for three seasons of blooming perennials at the front of the border. Continue to 12 of 12 below - 12 of 12
Create a Green Border
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@gardenfromscratch / Instagram This shady border features a variety of plants with vibrant green foliage, showcasing beautiful shapes and textures, including variegated irises, heuchera, hosta, and pulmonaria. Note the color variations include not just shades of green but stripes, spots, edges and centers. These plants also produce colorful flowers. The 9 Best Lawn Mowers, Tested and Reviewed
FAQ
- What is the cheapest way to create a garden border? The cheapest way to create a garden border is to use perennial ground cover plants and edge it with inexpensive materials such as rocks or wood.
- What type of garden border requires the least maintenance? The type of garden border that requires the least maintenance would be tough, resilient, and drought-tolerant plants that do not require any deadheading, trimming, or pruning.
- What shrub requires the least maintenance? There are many low-maintenance evergreen shrubs to consider, some that grow low enough for garden borders. Boxwood and creeping juniper bushes require little to no maintenance, for example. If you are looking for an easy flowering shrub, consider forsythia, though it may need a bit of pruning to tidy it up.
7 LOW MAINTENANCE PERENNIALS for a STUNNING Garden Border!
FAQ
What are the best plants for low maintenance borders?
- What to consider when choosing your plants. When selecting your plants and shrubs, think ‘right plant, right place’. …
- Alliums. Bulbs that strike a pose.
- Lavender. Let the wildlife party.
- Alchemilla. …
- Liriope. …
- Rudbeckia. …
- Hardy geraniums. …
- Heuchera.
What is a good low-growing border plant?
In full sun conditions like a south-facing garden, drought-tolerant plants thrive best. Some excellent choices include Sedum, which offers a variety of textures and colors, Lavender for its fragrant foliage and flowers, and Thymus serpyllum (Creeping Thyme), known for its hardiness and ability to tolerate foot traffic.
What are the best low maintenance plants for graves?
Spring bulbs like daffodils, snowdrops, fritillaries and ipheions are one of the loveliest choices for a grave. These tough bulbs will gradually spread and come back year after year, bringing cheering colour while being low-maintenance.
What are the best low maintenance plants for fence lines?
Low-maintenance plants for a fence line include succulents, lavender, euonymus, and sedum. These hardy plants require minimal care, thrive in various climates, and add color and texture to your fence line year-round.