The gardener shared a carousel of photos displaying differently-colored native species they planted in the garden bed, including bee balms, raspberry wine, phlox paniculata, coneflowers, Mangnus, snake roots, solidago fireworks, helianthus, coreopsis, latris, rudbeckia, serviceberries, and hardwoods. Each type of flower appeared in a cluster, punctuated like a pop of color in the garden bed. Pinks in one place, yellow flowers in another, and white flowers in another.
Speaking to Homes & Gardens, horticultural expert Peggy Anne Montgomery said that this kind of “drift planting” is desirable in almost every situation. “It mimics nature, and the repetition is soothing to the eye. Bulbs always look better when planted en masse. The flowers can be small, so it takes quite a few of the small ones to show up.” A specific type of drift planting that many gardeners online have spoken about is the “3x3x3 planting.”
The next step is plant placement. Experts at Gardening Know How suggest positioning each type of plant in groups of three and planting each group of those three plants within a 3-foot space. This spacing can vary depending on the area of your garden bed. For example, if you are placing plants in groups of five or seven, this spacing should be between 5 feet and seven feet.
But beware of cramping or clumping the plants too closely in a narrow space. When these plants grow up, their clusters may become too dense and get entangled with the neighboring clusters, prompting diseases or blocking growth. But as long as you’re using correct geometry and proportion to sprinkle the plants and flowers in the bed, “drift planting” can be a game-changing trick that can make your garden explode with a bounty of pollinating guests. And perhaps, at the end of the day, you’ll realize that math isn’t as boring as you always thought it to be. Not in the garden at least.
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