Triangular Bed Landscape Design

Fill a triangular bed with colorful, eye-catching flowering plants.


If you're tired of planting flowering and non-flowering plants in traditional, rectangular garden beds and want to use a different landscape design, then create one or more triangular garden beds in your yard. Because triangular beds are less common than rectangular ones, success hinges upon creating a solid design plan and carrying it out.

Bed Placement

If you're unsure where to situate a triangular bed, simply scour your yard for angles. A triangular bed can be set in the space where two sidewalks meet to form a right angle, a corner enclosed by a fence or a space where a porch or patio attaches to the house. A triangular bed also can be set in the middle of an empty space in the yard to make a bold visual statement. Create one triangular bed on only one side of your yard for an asymmetrical appearance, or place one triangular bed on each side of the yard for a balanced effect.

Triangle Types

An equilateral triangle probably springs to mind when you read or hear the word "triangle." Although nothing is wrong with an equilateral triangle, the sides of which are all the same length, other types of triangles may suit your situation better. An isosceles triangle has two sides that are the same length and either a longer or shorter base. Each side of a scalene triangle has a length different from each other side's length. A right-angled triangle contains one 90-degree angle where two sides meet. All of those kinds of triangles are design options for a triangular bed.

Installation Guidelines

When you dig to make a triangular garden bed, creating three straight lines and sharp corners around the bed's edge is crucial. Before you dig, insert three wooden stakes into the ground at each corner of the future triangular bed to mark the space. Connect the stakes by tying twine from one stake to the other stakes; the twine marks definite sides, or edges, for the bed. Following the twine from stake to stake with an edging tool creates the triangle's straight lines in the ground. Dig out the perimeter of the triangle with a flat-edged spade.

Plant Height

Selecting the plants for inclusion in a triangular bed requires considering their height when they are fully grown. Planting tall plants around the triangle's edge will obscure plants in the triangle's center, possibly blocking sunlight from reaching them. Instead, place tall plants along one edge of the triangle, and plant varieties of gradually decreasing mature heights as you plant farther from that edge. Alternatively, situate tall plants in the triangle's center, and surround them with progressively shorter plants.

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