Create a Moon Garden for Nighttime Enjoyment

A flower garden is typically something enjoyed during the daytime. Most flowers bloom with the sun and show off their colors and beauty in daylight hours, but who says you can only enjoy a garden when the sun is shining? Imagine enjoying a fragrant and pretty garden by moonlight during those warm spring and summer months. This type of specialty garden--a moon garden--is one of my favorite new landscaping projects because it is unique and adds a touch of mystery and drama to any yard. If you want to add this feature to your landscape, here are my tips for creating your own moon garden.

What is a Moon Garden?
A moon garden features plants and flowers that are pale in color (white, pale yellow, pale green) and bloom late in the day or at night. These night bloomers often rely upon fragrance to attract pollinators, whereas day blooming plants use color.

Choose the Location
When choosing the location for your nighttime garden a spot with partial or full sun would be the best option for any day-blooming plants you include. A location that is well-drained is ideal. If you have a lot of trees like I do, choosing a spot out in the open will give you the chance to sit in your garden and enjoy the stars and the evening moon. Keep these things in mind when you choose the perfect spot.

Choose the Plants
Choosing a variety of flowers and plants that fit into this type of garden is the key to unlocking an evening garden that provides a dash of mystery and a tantalizing scent. Such a garden offers an evening surrounded by moonlight and beauty.

My favorite plants for a moon garden include evening and night bloomers such as moonflower (Ipomea alba) and four o'clocks (Mirabilis jalapa). Yucca plants (Yucca filamentosa) offer the correct colors for such a garden and while the flowers bloom during the day, in the evening they perk up and release a clean, fragrant scent. Tobacco plant or Nicotiana (Nicotiana alata) is another favorite plant featuring fragrant blooms that open in the evening.

A non-flowering plant like artemisia is another favorite of mine because the silvery-green leaves and pungent scent are unique and unforgettable. The feathery leaves of this woody plant create texture and interest in any landscape. Similar plants like lamb's ear and dusty miller are additions offering daytime beauty that stick with the moon garden theme. A jasmine vine's white flowers offer a tantalizing scent that you won't forget on a warm spring or summer evening.

While a moon garden makes its most dramatic statement in the evening, don't forget that you can plant day-blooming flowers that fit into the overall pale color scheme.

Honeysuckle vine is a beautiful addition but it can become invasive. Honeysuckle offers both scent and even taste as the flower has a sweet center that I always enjoyed sampling as a child.

Garden Features
Personal touches to enhance the garden include a white border fence, a garden bench, stepping stones and trellises or arbors. A water feature such as a fountain or small pond adds sound to this special garden--effectively bringing in all five senses: Taste, touch, sight, scent and sound. Strategically-placed solar lights add to an evening garden that will draw you outside night after night.

Related content by Tamara L. Morris
Cleaning and Preparing Flower Pots for Reuse
Tips for Creating a Wildflower Garden
Attracting Butterflies With Perennials, Annuals, Herbs and Wildflowers