Practical advice for healthier plants. How we publish our guides

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Grow a garden that fits its place.

Start with your climate, light, soil, and available space. Then choose plants that can settle in and improve over time.

Getting Started Plant Types
Original Plantwise editorial image
Plan before planting

How to use this library

Use this collection to move from site observations to a workable plant list. The Getting Started guide covers the measurements worth making first; the Plant Types guide explains how trees, shrubs, perennials, annuals, vegetables, and climbers serve different roles.

Once the constraints are clear, filter the profiles below by plant type. Compare mature size and ongoing maintenance as carefully as color or bloom time, then verify local hardiness, invasive-plant guidance, and planting dates with a regional extension or other local authority.

Browse the collection

Explore garden plants by type

Plan before you plant

Getting Started

A practical first-season guide to site assessment, soil, tools, planting, watering, and observation.

Choose by role and life cycle

Plant Types

Understand annuals, perennials, bulbs, trees, shrubs, climbers, edibles, natives, and container plants.

Color through the seasons

Flowers

Annuals, perennials, and bulbs chosen for the light and space you actually have.

Structure for the long term

Trees

Right-sized shade, flowering, and ornamental trees for home landscapes.

Shape, screening, and flowers

Shrubs

Deciduous and evergreen shrubs for borders, privacy, wildlife, and year-round form.

Harvests from useful space

Vegetables

Practical guidance for raised beds, compact plots, and productive containers.

Flavor close at hand

Herbs

Culinary herbs for beds, windowsills, patio pots, and mixed edible planting.

Vertical growth with a plan

Climbers & Vines

Flowering, foliage, and edible climbers with the right support from day one.

Living layers underfoot

Ground Covers

Low-growing plants for shade, slopes, path edges, and weed-suppressing coverage.

Plants connected to place

Native Plants

Region-appropriate plants that support local food webs and resilient garden design.

More garden in less ground

Container Gardening

Flowers, foliage, herbs, and vegetables for patios, balconies, and doorsteps.

Choose your starting point

All Plants

Browse garden plants by form and purpose, then open a complete profile for site-specific growing guidance.

Bush Bean plants bearing green pods in a sunny kitchen garden bedPet-friendlier

Bush Bean

Phaseolus vulgaris

Bush bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) is a warm-season annual legume in the pea family grown for its tender, stringless snap pods. A domesticated form of a Central and South American native, it is the easiest bean for small gardens because it grows as a compact, self-supporting bush about two feet tall and needs no trellis. Sown after the soil warms, it produces a concentrated crop of crisp, nutritious pods in roughly 50 to 60 days and, picked often, keeps bearing for weeks.

Garden Pea vines bearing green pods on a simple trellis in a kitchen garden bedPet-friendlier

Garden Pea

Pisum sativum

Garden pea (Pisum sativum, accepted by Kew as Lathyrus oleraceus) is a cool-season annual legume in the pea family grown for its sweet, tender seeds and edible pods. Probably first cultivated around the Mediterranean and western Asia, it is a classic early spring crop whose vines (for tall types) or bushes (for dwarf types) produce shelling, snow, or sugar-snap peas. Planted as soon as the soil can be worked, it matures in cool weather and is one of the sweetest, most rewarding crops for spring and fall.

Broccoli plants forming green heads in a cool-season kitchen garden bedPet-friendlier

Broccoli

Brassica oleracea Italica Group

Broccoli (Brassica oleracea var. italica) is a cool-season annual in the cabbage family grown for its clustered, unopened flower heads. A cultivated form of wild cabbage native to the coastal cliffs of western Europe, it is one of the most nutritious garden crops, producing a large central head that, once cut, is followed by smaller side shoots for weeks. It prefers cool growing weather and rich, moist soil, and it tolerates light frost that can even sweeten the flavor.

Green Cabbage heads growing in a cool-season kitchen garden bedPet-friendlier

Cabbage

Brassica oleracea Capitata Group

Cabbage (Brassica oleracea var. capitata) is a cool-season biennial in the cabbage family grown as an annual for its dense, leafy head. A cultivated form of wild cabbage native to the coastal cliffs of western Europe, it is a staple garden and storage crop whose round, flat, or pointed heads range from green to red and store far longer than most vegetables. It grows best in cool weather and, like its relatives, is a heavy feeder that rewards steady moisture and fertility.

White Cauliflower heads growing in a cool-season kitchen garden bedPet-friendlier

Cauliflower

Brassica oleracea Botrytis Group

Cauliflower (Brassica oleracea var. botrytis) is a cool-season annual in the cabbage family grown for its compact, unopened flower cluster called the curd. A close cousin of broccoli from the same wild cabbage of western Europe, it is the most finicky of the brassicas, demanding steady moisture and cool temperatures (about 50-70°F) to form a tight, sweet curd. White types are blanched by tying the leaves over the head, while colored types need sun to develop their hue.

Green Kale plants growing in a cool-season kitchen garden bedPet-friendlier

Kale

Brassica oleracea Acephala Group

Kale (Brassica oleracea var. acephala) is a cool-season biennial in the cabbage family grown as a leafy annual for its frilled, nutrient-dense leaves. A non-heading form of wild cabbage native to the coastal cliffs of western Europe, it is among the hardiest greens, shrugging off frost that actually sweetens its flavor, and it produces for months from a single planting when the outer leaves are harvested. Ornamental kales are the same species grown for showy leaves.

Red-stemmed Swiss Chard growing in a natural kitchen garden bedPet-friendlier

Swiss Chard

Beta vulgaris Cicla Group

Swiss chard (Beta vulgaris, the leafy Cicla group, also called leaf beet) is a cool-season biennial in the amaranth family grown as a warm-tolerant leafy green. A close relative of the garden beet native to the Mediterranean and Atlantic coasts of Europe, it produces crinkled or smooth leaves on colorful stems (white, red, yellow, or orange) and, unlike beet, forms no storage root. It is more heat-tolerant than spinach, so it carries the greens season from spring through the hottest summer.

Before you plant

Three checks prevent expensive mistakes.

Know the site

Track direct sun, drainage, wind, and usable root space before shopping.

Plan for maturity

Use mature height and spread, not the size of a plant at the nursery.

Match the maintenance

Choose a garden that fits the time you can give to watering, pruning, and harvest.

In the July garden

Water deeply. Harvest often. Observe before treating.

Morning watering reduces evaporation and gives foliage time to dry. Check young trees, containers, and vegetables first during hot or windy weather.