Which plants to choose along a driveway?

Border and conceal with a hedge

City or estate gardens generally have a significant overlook onto the adjacent house, or are semi-detached. This configuration, where the garage is often adjacent to that of the neighbour, is conducive to establishing a relatively tall evergreen hedge (between 1.50 and 2 m maximum) to separate the driveway from the shared garage.

It is interesting to replicate a border on the other side of the driveway that echoes it, although it should be of a lower size, with plants of varying heights, and of a more free habit to best blur this mineral driveway. The plants will be primarily evergreen, as even though they grow more slowly, they will soften the area leading to the garage throughout the year. One or two more graphic bushes also have their place here.

N.B.: framing the driveway leading to the garage with a trimmed hedge should be avoided to prevent a pronounced “corridor” effect, unless the boundary is not vegetative. The idea is mainly to create a link and a green passage to the house, accessible via a secondary pathway.

Our choice of bushes: Compact Ceanothus such as Ceanothus ‘Italian Skies’ and Dodonaea in mild climates, Abelia, rhododendrons or Pieris, the beautiful foliage of Prunus lusitanica ‘Brenelia’ and Sorbaria sorbifolia ‘Sem’, and a few deciduous shrubs like a Cornus or a Salix purpurea ‘Nana’ revealing its colourful stems in winter.

Ceanothus ‘Italian Skies’, Rhododendron and Pinus nigra ‘Nana’

Dress with a low border

One might wish, on the contrary, not to hide the driveway but rather to enhance it. This involves using the parking area or guiding to the garage as a plant-based scenography. This is useful, for example, when the driveway surface is made of gravel and the driveway is wide enough. This is often the case with modern, contemporary-style houses that have a more or less long, straight, and very visible driveway.

Small compact or dwarf bushes are suitable for dressing the linear mineral area up to the garage door. They are primarily chosen for their evergreen nature and bushy, rounded, or even upright habit to create rhythm along a fairly long driveway.

Our selection of plants: Berberis, including the ornamental Berberis thunbergii ‘Admiration’, Abelia grandiflora ‘Prostata’, euonymus with the variegated ‘Emerald Gaiety’, Choysia ternata ‘Apple Blossom’ or ‘Aztec Gold’, Rosmarinus officinalis ‘Majorca Pink’, Nandina domestica ‘Lemon Lime’, santolines, etc.

Plan a linking bed

In many cases, it is beneficial to position a small bed at the corner or side of the garage to link it with the entrance of the house. This is a small bed, but it can be larger or smaller depending on the space available in front of the house. It borders the main path leading to the house’s threshold.

The choice of plants mainly depends on the exposure and the preferred style: Fatsia, hostas, Japanese maple, Hellebore, and azalea in a shaded area, Cycas or Phormium, Spurge, and lavender for a sunny side, for example. One of the plants will be chosen to be taller and/or more graphic (Melianthus, Edgeworthia, Acer, etc.), but again, we prioritise a maximum of evergreen plants for a beautiful effect throughout the year. A fragrant bush is also interesting to integrate into this frequently used passage, such as a Daphne or a peony.

A small bed bordering the garage and the house: wide choice depending on the desired atmosphere (Japanese maples and hybrid azalea Encore ‘Empress’, or sunny Cycas graphic)

Blur the edges of the path

Soothing your garage entrance can also be approached in a more original way by breaking the straightness of a linear corridor, to divert attention from the driveway in favour of an asymmetry created in the paving and through randomly overflowing plants. This works particularly well in the case of a small access area to the garage.

The wheel tracks are visually softened by the slabs, and a lawn in the central part or around the edges will further blur the design, allowing the garden to merge into the driveway.

The plants framing this asymmetrical path can be quite varied and interspersed for a more natural look: some fine grasses (Pennisetums, molinies, stipas, or Miscanthus) or Libertias, more structural plants like Acanthus, a lush clump of Euphorbia, lavenders, a dwarf purple Weigela or a bushy sage, an evergreen shrub like an Berberis, and some flowering perennials like Alstroemerias or bermudiennes, etc.

Euphorbia characias, Libertia peregrinas, purple Berberis, Stipa tenuifolia, and pennisetum blur the path, already blending into the lawn

Vegetated mineral coating

You dislike 100% mineral entrances like gravel or chippings, which are overused, dull, and cold, or perhaps you live in a characterful, older house where a uniform driveway leading to the garage would be unflattering.

To attenuate the mineral aspect of a garage entrance and better integrate it into a countryside landscape, you can choose, if the linearity is reasonable (this design is more costly), to mix stone pavers or block paving with an appropriate ground cover.

Well-designed, also drivable and safe for walking, this garage driveway will allow for easy mowing of grass integration between the pavers. Even more wisely, the alternatives to lawn, plants that grow close to the ground and require little maintenance, such as sedums, Thymus praecox, or sagina for shady areas, provide a very effective and ornamental visual all year round.

Grass-filled alveolate slabs, local stone, and jointed pavers with sedum.

Minimalist entryway for a design home

In the case of a contemporary house, the garden will feature geometric lines, intersecting at right angles and kept minimal. The access to the garage will be highlighted by the planting of a beautiful specimen, positioned directly above the parking area, ideally as a solitary feature. It is best to reserve a generous planting pit to counter the mineral zone.

Collection bushes or small trees with atypical silhouettes or unique foliage will be preferred.

Among the beautiful options: a Ligustrum shaped into a ball or cone, a pine, Osmanthus, holly, boxwood, or Lonicera nitida pruned into niwaki, or among the deciduous plants, a Gingko biloba fastigiate or shaped into a pyramid (‘Menhir’, ‘Blagon’, ‘Gold Flame’, or ‘Autumn Gold’), or even a Rhus typhina ‘Tiger Eyes’.

One can also emphasise the rectangular design marked by the mineral covering by creating along the path a wide flowerbed or a plant square. Composed of two contrasting plants such as grasses and two or three conifers or an imposing Phormium tenax, this structured mass will connect the house via a secondary pedestrian pathway.

The case of a sloped garage entrance

Many houses from the 1970s and 1980s feature a subterranean garage accessible via a steep ramp. This type of driveway, built with masonry on the side walls, is often quite unadorned, with the descent creating a sometimes stifling impression.

To remedy this, the trick is to maximise greenery at the top by choosing trailing plants, generous bushes, and perennials, with complementary leaf shapes and flowering spread throughout the year, to create a less dreary transition.

Soft branches or arching bushes such as winter jasmine or Rosmarinus prostratus, which are evergreen, along with Lespedeza thunbergii or Exochorda x macranta ‘The Bride’ for graceful draping over the wall, as well as some beautiful flowers and foliage: Hakonechloa macra, evergreen Euonymus, Phormium, Grevillea rosmarinifolia, Cytisus scoparius ‘Moyclare Pink’, Deutzias, Perovskias…

Rosmarinus prostratus, Jasminum nudiflorum, Hakonechloa macra ‘Aureola’, Cytisus scoparius ‘Moyclaire Pink’, and Perovskia atriciplifolia ‘Blue Spire’.

The path leading to the garage in a large garden

For large properties accessed via a long driveway, the situation is quite different. It is generally considered to plant a few trees and bushes along the driveway to pleasantly accompany the eye on the way to the garage. They also create a welcome shade and help to conceal the house at the same time.

Among the plant options of considerable size for a wide driveway, deciduous trees with double or triple interest (foliage, flowering, and/or autumn colour, bark) are preferred: Prunus, Parrotia persica, Liquidambar, Acer negundo, Nyssa sylvatica, birches… One or two upright conifers can be placed between the trees if the pathway is very long.

On the left, trees and groundcover enhance the entrance to the garage. On the right, a wide driveway beautifully highlighted by columnar cypress trees.

The carport

Some houses have a carport or shelter for parking the car outdoors, in a sheltered manner. This prominent metal or wooden framework often has a modern appearance. The carport is useful when the house does not have an integrated garage or when one has two cars, for example. In the countryside, you can, on a wooden framework, plant a semi-woody climbing plant that will eventually cover it while filtering the light: honeysuckle or Akebia are particularly aesthetic choices, as they are voluble, flowering, and fragrant in the case of honeysuckle. A jasmine or a Solanum would be graceful in a mild climate.

You can also use the material of the carport in an adjacent trellis or fence to simulate continuity towards the entrance of the house, and allow another shorter climbing plant (Clematis, Trachelospermum jasminoides or a beautiful climbing rose…) to grow along it.

On the other hand, in more design-oriented contemporary house layouts, to maintain the clean style and often anthracite tones of carports, it is more elegant to adopt stylised codes: planting one or two topiaries in symmetry with the posts, creating a mini bed of medium, soft, and light grasses in straw, copper, or bluish colours (Stipas, Chionochloa rubra…) or chosen graphic shrubs (Pittosporum, Phormium, Pinus mugho…). Also consider a beautiful evergreen shrub with variegated foliage (euonymus) or an elegant climbing plant like Trachelospermum ‘Sun Lover’.

To enhance a carport, one can use a beautiful flowering climbing plant like Akebia or honeysuckle, or a minimalist bed with plants like Pittosporum and grasses (here Chionochloa rubra)