Best Plants to Use on a Retaining Wall

Plants for a retaining wall can work to soften the hard lines of a wall, help hold the soil in place and add to the overall design and texture of your garden. Adding plants to your walls takes a lot knowledge of the way different plants grow and even more planning so that each plants needs can be met and grow comfortably.

The best plants for your retaining wall are going to spread along and over the hardscape, require little care in hard to reach areas and have a healthy root system to stabilize the soil. The following are some great choices that work in a wide variety of planting conditions over several growing zones.

Creeping Juniper
Creeping Juniper can be found in a lot of gardens of North America, because it works well in so many growing conditions and covers up a lot of area very quickly. Used as a groundcover, this plant is able to spread anywhere from twelve to twenty feet in any direction, in a thick mat. The many varieties of creeping juniper can bear berries, flower or change needle color, giving a gardener a lot to work with in all four seasons.

Lantana
Lantana has grown in popularity with nurseries and gardeners, planted as an annual when it is actually a perennial plant. This flowering perennial, is filled with color for most of spring, summer and fall and has a wide spreading root system that give it a good foothold on the retaining wall while providing a stabilizing force. If you live in an area where you struggle to keep animals out of your garden, lantana is a great option to naturally deter them.

Snow in Summer
Beautiful white mounds of tiny flowers, snow in summer, looks incredible on rock walls because it gets into all the crevices and tight joints that you might want to hide. A tight rootball holds soil in place and spreads anywhere it possibly can, so just a few plants is enough to cover more area than you might expect. Runners and their self seeding make this a very economical choice if you are planting on a budget.

Blue Fescue
Blue Fescua gives any garden color and texture year round in most hardiness zones, though it is rated a zone 5 plant. Small mounding, it is named for the color it has once fall approaches and the green in the shoots fades out. Retaining walls that are in full sun benefit from this beautiful ornamental because it thrives in the sun and can be used to create a border, sit along the wall or as a focal point.