Planting Ideas for Your Los Angeles Backyard

Plants are what bring a Los Angeles backyard to life. The concrete patio and the artificial turf create the structure and the ground plane. The patio cover creates the shade and the definition. But it is the planting — the color, the texture, the fragrance, the movement, and the organic character of living plants — that makes an outdoor space feel genuinely beautiful rather than merely constructed.

If you are planning a planting scheme for your Los Angeles backyard and want ideas that are beautiful, low-water, and genuinely appropriate for the Southern California climate, this guide covers the plants and planting approaches that work best right now.

Planting Ideas by Zone

Along the Fence Line — Privacy and Background ColorThe fence line is the perimeter of the backyard composition — the backdrop against which everything else is seen. Planting along the fence line serves two purposes simultaneously: it adds visual depth and greenery to the background of the outdoor space, and it creates privacy screening from neighboring properties.

The best plants for fence line planting in Los Angeles combine reasonable height with low water needs and year-round density.

Clumping bamboo varieties like Bambusa oldhamii or Otatea acuminata grow quickly to screening height, create a lush, tropical-feeling privacy screen, and stay evergreen year-round. They clump rather than spread, which keeps them controllable.

Ficus nitida trimmed as a formal hedge creates a clean, dense privacy screen that maintains a precise profile with periodic trimming. One of the most widely used privacy plants in Los Angeles for good reason.

Pittosporum crassifolium is a drought-tolerant evergreen that develops dense, dark foliage — excellent for informal screening with less maintenance than Ficus.

Photo idea: Lush green clumping bamboo or Ficus hedge along a wooden fence, backyard visible in the foreground.

In Raised Planter Walls — Structure and ColorRaised concrete planter walls adjacent to patios and walkways create the vertical structure that gives a backyard planting scheme its architectural quality. Planting in raised beds is also practical — it keeps plants out of foot traffic zones and makes gardening accessible without bending.

Lavender planted in mass in a raised bed creates a fragrant, silvery-blue border that looks beautiful from the patio and attracts pollinators throughout its long flowering season. One of the most popular planting choices for raised beds in Los Angeles.

Agapanthus in bold masses provides strong, dark green foliage year-round and spectacular blue or white flower stalks in summer. A Los Angeles classic for raised planting beds adjacent to hardscape.

Rosemary as a low hedge in a raised bed brings fragrance, Mediterranean character, and complete drought tolerance to the planting scheme. Pairs beautifully with lavender and ornamental grasses.

Photo idea: Raised concrete planter wall with lavender or agapanthus spilling over the edge, concrete patio in the foreground.

Specimen Plants — Bold Focal PointsEvery great Los Angeles backyard planting scheme has at least one specimen plant — a single plant of significant size, strong form, or dramatic character that anchors the composition visually and creates the moment of botanical interest that the garden orbits around.

Olive trees are the most popular specimen plant in Los Angeles right now — their gnarled trunks, silver-gray foliage, and timeless Mediterranean character suit virtually every architectural style and look beautiful in every season. Fruitless varieties avoid messy fruit drop.

Large agaves — Agave attenuata for softer residential settings, Agave americana for bolder architectural impact — create dramatic, sculptural focal points that require essentially zero water or maintenance after establishment.

Phormium (New Zealand Flax) in bold upright clumps creates strong vertical character and comes in a range of green, bronze, red, and variegated color forms that add visual interest to the planting scheme year-round.

Photo idea: Large olive tree as a backyard focal point, artificial turf or decomposed granite below, patio visible in the background.

Ground Cover and Border Plants — Softening the HardscapeThe transition between concrete hardscape and planting beds is one of the most important details in any Los Angeles backyard. Low-growing border plants that soften this transition without encroaching on the hardscape surface add the finishing quality that separates a professionally planted yard from an amateurly assembled one.

Ornamental grasses like Lomandra 'Breeze' and Mexican feather grass create soft, movement-filled borders that complement the clean lines of concrete and artificial turf beautifully. Both are drought-tolerant and require minimal maintenance.

California poppies sown in fall produce an extraordinary spring display of golden-orange flowers in any sunny border with minimal water. They self-seed reliably year after year.

Verbena and lantana provide vibrant, long-season flower color in sunny borders with very little water — two of the most reliable low-water flowering border plants for Los Angeles backyards.

Photo idea: Ornamental grass border alongside a concrete patio edge, soft movement in the grass, backyard planting behind.

Putting It Together: A Simple Los Angeles Backyard Planting Framework

The most cohesive and beautiful Los Angeles backyard planting schemes share a simple organizational logic: tall screening plants at the perimeter, medium-height specimen and garden plants in the middle ground, and low border plants at the edges of the hardscape. This layered approach creates visual depth, screens the fence from view, and frames the outdoor living space with greenery that feels lush without feeling cluttered.

Keep the palette restrained. Three to five species used confidently and in generous quantities will always look better than fifteen species scattered randomly. Repetition creates cohesion. Variety creates clutter if it is not organized with discipline.

Choose for the microclimate, not the magazine. The most beautiful planting idea is the one that actually thrives in your specific yard — the sun exposure, the soil, the proximity to heat-reflecting surfaces. A plant that looks stunning in a garden magazine but struggles in your specific Encino backyard microclimate will never deliver the result the photo promised.

Stonewood Landscape: Planting Design and Installation Across Los Angeles

Stonewood Landscape designs and installs planting schemes for homeowners throughout Los Angeles, including Culver City, Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, Encino, and Pacific Palisades. As a family-owned landscape design and construction company with over 10 years of experience and more than 500 completed projects, Stonewood selects plants that are genuinely appropriate for each specific site — and installs them with the care and knowledge that produces results that look better every year.