What Should I Plant Around a Patio? Best Plants for Outdoor Entertaining Areas

There’s something slightly ridiculous about spending thousands of dollars building a beautiful patio, deck or alfresco area and then putting three lonely pots beside it and calling the landscaping finished.

The plants around an outdoor entertaining area do far more than fill the garden beds. They can provide shade, fragrance, privacy, movement, softness and that wonderful feeling that you're sitting in the garden, rather than beside some concrete with a barbecue on it.

But patios are also surprisingly difficult places for plants.

Paving reflects heat. Roofs create dry areas where rain barely reaches. Furniture gets pushed into garden beds. People walk through them. Barbecues throw heat. Narrow beds leave little room for enormous shrubs, and anything planted too close can eventually spend its life leaning over chairs or dropping half itself onto the table.

So what should you actually plant around a patio?

Start with how you use it.

Before choosing plants, sit down

Literally.

Put the chair where it normally lives and sit in it.

What can you see?

Perhaps the neighbour's fence dominates the view. Maybe there's a blank wall beside you, afternoon sun coming from one direction or a garden bed that feels completely disconnected from the rest of the yard.

Now think about what would make that space better.

Do you need privacy? Fragrance? Shade? Something green against a wall? Soft planting around the edge of paving? Or do you simply want the patio to feel less like an extension bolted onto the house?

This is a much better starting point than wandering through a nursery asking, “What's good around a patio?”

The best plants depend on the job.

Pay attention to where the rain actually falls

This catches people all the time.

A garden bed can technically be outdoors and still be incredibly dry.

Roof overhangs and covered entertaining areas can prevent rainfall from reaching soil close to the house. The garden 1.5 metres away might receive every shower while the plant beside the patio wall gets almost nothing.

Then we blame the plant.

Before planting, watch the area during rain. Check where water lands and where it doesn't.

It's one of the simplest pieces of gardening advice we can give: go outside when it rains.

You'll learn more about your garden in ten wet minutes than you will staring at it through the kitchen window.

Paving can create a much hotter microclimate

If you've ever walked barefoot across dark paving in summer, you already understand this one.

Hard surfaces absorb and reradiate heat. Walls and fences can do the same thing. A plant beside paving may therefore experience considerably more heat than the weather forecast suggests.

Western-facing patios can be particularly brutal in summer.

That's why a plant being described as “full sun” isn't quite enough information.

Full sun in an open garden bed with good air movement is different from full sun squeezed between a masonry wall and hot paving.

Look at the whole microclimate, not just the number of hours of sunlight.

Gardenia Radicans — fragrance without a huge shrub

Fragrance is one of the great opportunities around outdoor living spaces.

We're usually sitting there.

Why put the beautiful smelling plants 40 metres down the backyard?

Gardenia Radicans is a lower-growing Gardenia that can work beautifully around outdoor areas where its growing requirements are suitable. You get glossy foliage, fragrant white flowers and a much lower form than many larger Gardenias.

That lower growth habit is important.

Around patios, plants need to work with furniture, paths and views. You don't necessarily want everything growing at eye level.

Use fragrance where people will actually experience it: beside a seat, near an entrance or somewhere you regularly walk past.

A fragrant plant hidden behind the shed is trying its best, but frankly we've given it a terrible audience.

Port Wine Magnolia — one of those plants you smell before you see

Port Wine Magnolia is another plant worth considering when fragrance is part of the brief.

Its flowers aren't enormous attention seekers. The scent is the real trick.

Planting fragrant shrubs near outdoor living areas can add an entire layer to a garden that photographs can't really capture.

And that's worth thinking about when designing any garden.

We spend so much time designing for the eyes that we forget gardens can also be experienced through scent, sound, touch and movement.

The best outdoor spaces aren't necessarily the ones with the most impressive plant collection.

They're the ones you actually want to sit in.

Star Jasmine — use the walls

If your patio has limited garden-bed space, stop thinking only horizontally.

You've got fences, screens, posts, pergolas and walls that may offer vertical growing space.

Star Jasmine is popular for good reason. Where conditions suit it and suitable support is provided, its climbing habit can cover vertical surfaces while producing fragrant white flowers.

Vertical planting is particularly useful in small outdoor areas because it gives you greenery without sacrificing much floor space.

Just remember that climbers need something appropriate to climb on, and some ongoing training or pruning may be required depending on the effect you're after.

“Climber” does not mean “understands architectural drawings.”

You may have to point it in the right direction occasionally.

Mandevilla — when you actually want colour near the table

Sometimes we absolutely do want flowers.

Mandevilla All Seasons Red and All Seasons Pink can bring stronger colour into outdoor areas, particularly where a climbing or supported plant suits the site.

And this is where I'd use colourful plants differently from structural plants.

You don't necessarily need bright flowers everywhere.

Choose a few places where colour will have impact: near the entertaining area, around an entrance or against a background where the flowers can actually be seen.

A garden often looks more sophisticated when colour has somewhere to happen rather than happening absolutely everywhere at once.

Grey Box™ Westringia — a little bit of structure goes a long way

Outdoor living areas generally benefit from some evergreen structure.

Grey Box™ Westringia gives you a compact, naturally structured shrub that can help define the edge of a patio garden without needing the scale of a large hedge.

This is particularly useful when you're trying to make the hard landscaping feel connected to the garden.

A repeated line or group of compact shrubs creates order. Softer plants can then weave around them.

This is a design principle we come back to constantly because it works:

structure first, softness second.

If every plant is loose, sprawling and doing its own thing, the garden can feel messy.

If everything is clipped into balls, it can feel rigid.

Put the two together and things get interesting.

Little Jess™ Improved Dianella — soften those hard edges

Patios contain an awful lot of straight lines.

Paving edges. Walls. Steps. Screens. Furniture. Roof posts.

Plants with strappy or arching foliage are brilliant for breaking those lines up.

Little Jess™ Improved Dianella is a compact strappy plant that can be repeated around garden edges where its conditions suit.

Rather than planting one Little Jess between six unrelated shrubs, try repeating it.

Three.

Five.

Seven.

The foliage starts creating rhythm through the planting and visually connects separate parts of the bed.

That's when a plant stops being an individual purchase and starts becoming landscaping.

Lime Tuff™ Lomandra — movement changes a space

Lomandra Lime Tuff™ gives you another strappy form, with bright foliage that can add movement and contrast to a planting.

Movement is underrated around patios.

A garden that shifts slightly in the breeze feels alive even when nothing is flowering.

Grasses and grass-like plants are particularly good at this, although Lomandra isn't actually a grass. It's one of those plants that has spent its entire horticultural career being called one and appears to have given up correcting us.

Use plants with movement against more solid shrubs and hard paving.

The contrast is what makes both look better.

Just Right™ Liriope — useful when the light gets tricky

Covered patios can create strange transitions between sun and shade.

One end of a bed might receive plenty of light while the area closest to the house gets far less.

Just Right™ Liriope can be useful in appropriate lower-light areas, giving you strappy evergreen foliage without needing a huge amount of space.

This is where it's worth resisting the urge to use the same plant around the entire patio purely for symmetry.

If the growing conditions change, the planting may need to change too.

You can still create consistency by repeating shapes, colours or foliage textures.

Good design doesn't require pretending every part of the garden has identical conditions.

Mini Mondo — tiny plant, very specific job

There are places around paving where you don't need a shrub at all.

You need something small.

Mini Mondo is useful for creating very low green detail around suitable edges and small spaces where a taller plant would simply be annoying.

This is a good reminder that plant selection is really about scale.

The plant beside the back fence might need to be three metres tall.

The plant beside the step might need to be ten centimetres.

Neither is more important.

They're doing different jobs.

Be careful with thorny, spiky and irritating plants

This sounds obvious until you see a beautiful architectural plant and put it 30cm from someone's chair.

Think about human traffic.

Will children run through the area? Will people brush past the foliage? Is it beside a narrow path? Does the plant have thorns, sharp foliage, irritating sap or other characteristics that make close contact undesirable?

Plants around entertaining areas live in close proximity to people.

Choose accordingly.

There are plenty of places in a garden for plants that demand personal space.

Beside Nana's chair probably isn't one of them.

Think about litter — but don't become terrified of leaves

One of the stranger trends in garden design is the desire for plants that don't drop anything.

Plants drop things.

Leaves. Flowers. Bark. Seed.

They are living organisms, not outdoor furniture.

That said, there's a practical difference between normal garden litter and putting a particularly messy plant directly beside an area that needs to remain clear.

Consider maintenance realistically, especially near tables, outdoor kitchens, drains and heavily used paths.

But don't remove every interesting plant from consideration because a leaf might occasionally land on the paving.

You own a broom.

We're going to be okay.

Don't plant too close to the paving

This is where knowing mature width becomes critical again.

A shrub planted 20cm from a patio might look beautifully positioned when it's in a small nursery pot.

Three years later, half the plant is sitting in Chair Four.

Check mature dimensions and position plants so their eventual form works with the space.

Spreading groundcovers can intentionally soften an edge, but larger shrubs need enough room to develop without constantly being cut away from paths and furniture.

Plant for the garden you're going to have.

Not the little plants you've got today.

Use fewer plants more often

If I could change one thing about the way people plant around patios, it might be this.

Stop trying to fit every plant you love into the bed closest to the house.

Choose a handful that work brilliantly together.

For example, you might use Grey Box for evergreen structure, Little Jess repeated for movement, Gardenia Radicans near the seating area for fragrance and Star Jasmine on a vertical screen.

Four plants.

Repeated properly, that's enough to make a seriously good garden.

You can absolutely add feature plants.

But give them something calm to be featured against.

If everything is special, nothing gets to be special.

A simple way to design patio planting

Think in three layers.

The background provides height, screening or vertical greenery. This might be a climber, narrow screen or taller shrub.

The middle layer provides structure. Compact evergreen shrubs work beautifully here.

The front layer softens the paving. Lower strappy plants, small groundcovers and spreading foliage can blur that hard line between garden and patio.

Then add fragrance or flowering plants where you'll actually experience them.

You don't need all three layers around every centimetre of patio.

The idea is simply to create depth.

A 1.5-metre-wide garden bed can feel surprisingly lush when plants occupy different heights rather than everything sitting in one flat row.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the best plants to grow around a patio in Australia?

The best plants depend on sunlight, climate, soil, available width and what you need the planting to achieve. Gardenias, Star Jasmine, selected Westringias, Dianellas, Lomandras, Liriope and other compact shrubs or groundcovers can all be useful around outdoor living areas where their individual growing requirements are suitable.

What can I plant around a patio for privacy?

Use screening plants according to the height and width available, or climbers on appropriate supports where space is limited. Before planting a full hedge, identify the actual sightline you need to block.

What are good fragrant plants for outdoor entertaining areas?

Gardenias, Port Wine Magnolia and Star Jasmine are popular fragrant choices where local conditions suit them. Position fragrant plants near seating areas, entrances and paths where their scent can actually be enjoyed.

What plants can handle heat from paving?

Plants suited to hot, exposed conditions may cope better beside heat-reflective paving, but conditions vary significantly depending on aspect, paving material, airflow and irrigation. Check the microclimate rather than relying only on a generic “full sun” label.

What should I plant around a shaded patio?

The amount of shade matters. Bright filtered light, morning sun and deep shade are different growing conditions. Plants such as Liriope, Mondo and some Gardenias may suit certain sheltered or partly shaded positions, depending on climate and other site conditions.

How close should I plant shrubs to a patio?

Base planting distance on the mature width and growth habit of the particular shrub. Allow enough room for the plant to develop without permanently obstructing paths, furniture or access.

How do I make my patio look more connected to the garden?

Use plants to soften hard paving edges, repeat a limited plant palette, add vertical greenery where useful and create layers of different heights rather than lining individual plants around the perimeter.

Make the patio somewhere you actually want to be

When you're choosing plants around an outdoor area, don't just ask what will survive there.

Ask what would make sitting there better.

Maybe it's the smell of Gardenia drifting across the table. Perhaps it's a Star Jasmine covering the fence you currently spend dinner staring at. Maybe it's Dianella moving in the breeze, a little privacy from the neighbours or simply enough green foliage to make all that paving feel less hard.

That's the wonderful thing about garden design.

The patio itself might already be finished.

But plants are the bit that can make it feel like home.