How Do I Landscape a Large Area Without Spending My Life Maintaining It?
A big garden sounds wonderful.
Until you own one.
Then you realise you've somehow acquired several thousand square metres of weeds, mowing and things that need pruning.
And this is where people often make one of two mistakes.
They either leave enormous areas completely empty because filling them feels impossibly expensive...
or they approach a large garden exactly the same way they'd approach a little suburban garden bed.
One plant.
Another plant.
Something flowering.
Something spiky.
A different shrub.
Oh look, that's nice.
Chuck one of those in too.
Eventually you've planted 37 different varieties and somehow the garden still looks empty.
Here's the thing:
Large gardens don't necessarily need more varieties of plants.
They need more of fewer plants.
And once you understand that, landscaping a large area gets considerably easier.
Why Are Large Gardens So Hard to Landscape?
Scale changes everything.
A plant that looks substantial in a nursery pot can virtually disappear when you put it in the middle of a huge garden.
A group of three might look fantastic beside a suburban front path.
Put the same three plants across a 30-metre boundary and they look like they became separated from their tour group.
Large spaces need:
Repetition.
Mass planting.
Plants with useful mature dimensions.
Ground coverage.
And most importantly:
A plan for maintenance.
Because if you create 2,000 square metres of garden that requires individual attention to every plant, congratulations.
You've accidentally opened a nursery.
Ask me how I know.
Start With the Job, Not the Plants
Before buying anything, divide the landscape into jobs.
You might need:
Screening along a boundary.
Something to cover a bank.
Planting beneath existing trees.
A large sunny open area.
A driveway border.
A wet drainage area.
Something around the house.
A transition into surrounding bushland.
These are different growing conditions and different design problems.
Don't start with:
“What plants do I like?”
Start with:
“What does this part of the property need to do?”
Then choose plants for that job.
The Secret to Landscaping Large Areas: Repeat Yourself
This is probably the single biggest difference between many professional landscapes and home gardens.
Professional landscapes repeat plants.
Home gardeners often collect them.
And I completely understand why.
Plants are excellent.
You go shopping for Lomandra and suddenly you're holding a Grevillea because look at that flower.
But large-scale landscapes need visual rhythm.
Imagine a long driveway planted with:
Lomandra.
Dianella.
Lomandra.
Dianella.
Lomandra.
Dianella.
Already you've got something.
Now imagine:
Lomandra.
Rosemary.
Azalea.
Grevillea.
Gardenia.
Dianella.
Nandina.
Lavender.
Random succulent somebody gave you in 2017.
Every plant might be beautiful.
Together, across a huge area, they can become visual noise.
Repetition gives the eye somewhere to rest.
And there is another advantage:
Maintenance becomes simpler.
1. Lomandra — One of the Great Large-Landscape Plants
There's a reason you see Lomandra in commercial landscapes, schools, parks, roadsides and large gardens.
It works brilliantly in repetition.
Varieties such as Tanika®, Lime Tuff™ and others give you strappy foliage, movement and strong landscape rhythm while offering different sizes and characteristics for different jobs.
One Lomandra?
Perfectly nice.
Thirty repeated along a driveway?
Now we're landscaping.
The trick is choosing the right Lomandra variety for the conditions and mature size you need.
Because Lomandra isn't one plant.
Different cultivars have been selected for different landscape characteristics.
Treat the cultivar as part of the decision.
2. Dianella — Another Brilliant Connector Plant
Dianellas perform a similar design job while giving you a different foliage form and scale.
Plants such as Little Jess™ Improved, Breeze® and other selected Dianellas can become enormously useful when you're trying to connect larger areas of planting.
And I use the word connect deliberately.
Not every plant needs to be the star.
Some plants need to make the stars look like they belong together.
Dianellas can provide that repeating thread through a landscape.
Use them beside paths.
Through larger beds.
Around structural shrubs.
Along driveways.
In repeated groups.
The garden starts reading as one landscape rather than seventeen separate planting decisions.
3. Westringia — Structure Without Creating a Pruning Career
Large gardens still need shrubs.
But this is where mature size becomes incredibly important.
You don't want to plant 100 shrubs that naturally grow far larger than you need and then spend the rest of your life cutting all 100 back.
Selected Westringia varieties give you different shapes for different jobs.
Grey Box™ gives compact structure.
Goldie Box™ brings foliage contrast.
Low Horizon™ stays much lower and spreads.
Mundi™ gives you another broad, lower-growing form.
And that's exactly why we keep banging on about plant shape.
Instead of finding one shrub and forcing it into five jobs...
choose five shapes for five jobs.
Less fighting.
Better landscape.
4. Hardenbergia Meema™ — When You Need to Cover Ground
Large properties contain a lot of ground.
Ground that will happily grow something whether you plant it or not.
Usually weeds.
This is why ground coverage matters so much.
Hardenbergia Meema™ is particularly interesting for larger landscape areas because its mature spread does some serious work.
It grows relatively low but can spread to around two metres wide.
And that's the measurement I'd pay attention to.
Width.
Because when you're filling a large area, plants capable of covering meaningful amounts of ground can completely change the economics and eventual appearance of the planting.
Then winter arrives and Meema throws purple flowers over the whole thing.
Which is rather showing off considering we'd have planted it for the foliage anyway.
5. Groundcovers: Stop Paying for Mulch Forever
I love mulch.
We sell plants for a living and even I'll happily tell you:
Mulch is brilliant.
But I don't think the ultimate goal of a garden is necessarily to admire enormous expanses of it forever.
Plants such as Aussie Rambler™, Yareena™ Myoporum, Purple Fusion™ Scaevola, Mundi™ Westringia and other appropriately selected spreading plants can eventually help create a living ground layer.
That can:
Shade the soil surface.
Soften hard landscape edges.
Reduce large areas of exposed ground.
Create habitat.
And make the garden feel established.
It doesn't mean weeds magically cease to exist.
I wish.
But establishing appropriate groundcover changes the relationship between the garden and all that empty soil.
Tubestock Makes A LOT of Sense in Large Gardens
This is where tubestock really comes into its own.
If you need six plants, buying larger pots might be perfectly reasonable.
If you need 200?
Different conversation.
Tubestock allows you to plant larger quantities without the cost of buying every plant at an advanced size.
And you're buying the thing that actually matters:
the plant.
Not several litres of potting mix and a bigger plastic pot.
But there's a catch.
Small plants need establishment care.
They're not tiny green soldiers you deploy into a paddock in January and check again at Christmas.
Site preparation matters.
Watering matters.
Weed competition matters.
Mulch may matter.
Protection from animals may matter.
Get the establishment phase right and tubestock can be an incredibly practical way to build a large landscape.
How Many Plants Do I Need for a Large Area?
This is where guessing becomes expensive.
The number of plants depends on:
The total area.
The mature spread of the plants.
Recommended spacing.
How quickly you want visual coverage.
Whether you're planting individual specimens, groups or mass planting.
For a rectangular area, start by calculating:
length × width = square metres
Then look at the recommended planting density or spacing for the particular plants you're considering.
Don't just decide:
“About 50 should do it.”
Particularly if you're landscaping 800 square metres.
Planning quantities properly is one of the easiest ways to avoid either running out halfway through the job or buying far more plants than the landscape actually needs.
Don't Plant the Entire Property at Once
This sounds counterintuitive coming from somebody who would quite happily sell you the plants.
But genuinely:
You don't have to finish it all at once.
Large landscapes can be tackled in stages.
Start with the areas that will make the biggest difference.
Maybe that's:
The entrance.
The view from the house.
The privacy boundary.
The horrible bank.
The driveway.
Then expand.
There is a huge advantage to this.
You get to watch what happens.
Which plants thrive?
Where does water collect?
What survives summer best?
What looks fantastic repeated?
What turns out to require more maintenance than expected?
Then use what you've learnt in Stage Two.
A large garden doesn't need to be finished quickly.
It needs to be built intelligently.
Think in Drifts, Not Dots
Here's a simple design trick.
Take the same number of plants.
Instead of scattering them evenly across the entire property...
group them.
Five here.
Seven there.
Another seven further along.
Repeat.
You begin creating drifts.
The landscape gets rhythm.
And the spaces between those groups become deliberate rather than looking unfinished.
This is particularly effective with:
Lomandras.
Dianellas.
Ornamental grasses.
Sedges.
Groundcovers.
Compact shrubs.
Natural landscapes rarely distribute plants in perfectly spaced individual dots.
They occur in communities and repeated groups.
Borrow that idea.
What Are the Best Low-Maintenance Plants for Large Areas?
There isn't one list that works across Australia.
And that's important.
A plant that's incredibly low maintenance in one climate can be a complete nuisance in another.
The best plant is one suited to your:
Climate.
Soil.
Sunlight.
Rainfall or irrigation.
Drainage.
Available space.
And intended job.
But there is another characteristic I'd put high on the list:
A mature size that suits the design.
Because nothing turns a “low-maintenance” landscape into a high-maintenance one faster than planting something enormous where you wanted something small.
Don't Forget What Happens in Five Years
This is the fun part.
Stand in your empty landscape.
Now stop imagining the little plants you're buying.
Imagine them mature.
That tiny Meema is now potentially spreading around two metres.
The Lomandras have formed proper clumps.
Groundcovers are meeting.
Shrubs have become structural shapes.
The mulch is far less visible.
Suddenly those enormous gaps you were desperate to fill on planting day make sense.
This is one of the hardest parts of gardening:
Learning to plant for the garden that's coming rather than the garden standing in front of you today.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the cheapest way to landscape a large area?
Using smaller plants such as tubestock, choosing plants with useful mature coverage, mass planting repeated varieties and landscaping in stages can reduce upfront costs compared with filling a large area entirely with advanced plants. Establishment preparation and watering still need to be budgeted for.
What are the best plants for mass planting in Australia?
The answer depends on climate and site conditions, but selected Lomandras, Dianellas, Westringias, native groundcovers, sedges and other landscape plants can be excellent mass-planting options where they're suited to the site.
How do I make a large garden low maintenance?
Reduce unnecessary plant variety, choose plants suited to the site and desired mature size, use repetition, minimise permanent areas of exposed soil and design irrigation and access before planting.
Is tubestock good for large landscaping projects?
Tubestock can be an economical option for large projects because many plants can be installed at a smaller size. Good site preparation, weed control, watering and establishment care are particularly important.
How far apart should I plant plants for mass planting?
Spacing depends on the mature size and growth habit of the particular plant. Use recommendations for the actual species or cultivar rather than applying one spacing rule to all landscape plants.
How can I cover a large garden area quickly?
Choose plants with appropriate spreading habits and mature dimensions, but don't simply select the fastest-growing plant available. Fast growth can also mean significantly more future maintenance if the mature plant is too large for the space.
Should I use lots of different plants in a large garden?
Usually fewer varieties repeated in larger groups create a more cohesive landscape. Additional feature plants can then be introduced strategically rather than making every plant compete for attention.
The Bit I'd Remember
If you've got a huge area to landscape, don't stand there thinking:
How on earth am I going to fill all of this?
You don't need 100 different plants.
You don't need to finish it this weekend.
And you definitely don't need to turn every square metre into a garden bed requiring individual attention.
Break the property into jobs.
Choose plants that suit those jobs.
Use fewer varieties.
Repeat them confidently.
Plant for mature size.
Cover ground where it makes sense.
And let time do some of the work.
Because when you're landscaping a big area...
the goal isn't to own more plants.
It's to build a landscape that doesn't end up owning you.