North Shore Maximalist Gardening: A Bold New Trend

North Shore maximalist gardening is turning heads this season, as homeowners trade tidy, minimal beds for landscapes that overflow with color, texture, and personality. The shift makes sense: with more flexibility in daily schedules, people are spending more time at home and, as a result, more time in their gardens. That extra time has fueled a move away from streamlined, low-maintenance plantings toward something far more abundant.

However, maximalism isn't about abandoning design altogether. The style traces back to the lavish Baroque and Victorian eras, and later to Tony Duquette's "more is more" philosophy in 1970s interior design, which eventually found its way into the garden. Today's version is less about luxury and more about personal expression, layering plants and colors that genuinely bring a homeowner joy.

That said, the most successful maximalist gardens share a few things in common: intentional curation, thoughtful layering, and a willingness to mix plant categories that don't usually appear side by side, whether that's native pollinator plants mingling with edibles, succulents, and climbing vines. Understanding what defines the style and how to start bringing it into a North Shore yard makes the whole approach far less intimidating than it first sounds.

What Defines North Shore Maximalist Gardening

At its core, this style embraces density, diversity, and bold design choices instead of restraint. A single bed might combine ornamental grasses, flowering perennials, edible herbs tucked between shrubs, and vines climbing overhead for vertical interest, mirroring how plants actually grow together in nature rather than in isolated rows.

Layering is central to the look. Tall plants form the background, mid-height plants fill the middle, and low-growing groundcovers finish the foreground, creating depth the way a painter builds up a canvas. Repeating a color palette across flowers, foliage, and even garden accents like benches or window boxes ties an otherwise busy bed together. And texture matters just as much as color; some designers even suggest viewing a garden as a black-and-white photograph to judge how well its forms and shapes hold up on their own.

None of this is meant to look chaotic, though. As the author of one recent book on the style has explained, the difference between maximalism and clutter comes down to curation: choosing plants with intention rather than simply collecting more of everything. Dense, layered plantings also carry real ecological upside, supporting pollinators, improving soil health, and reducing the need for chemical inputs, which matters as much on a North Shore lot as it does in a public botanical garden.

How to Bring North Shore Maximalist Gardening to Your Own Yard

The good news is that this style scales to fit almost any North Shore property, whether it's a compact courtyard or a full backyard. Several starting points make the transition easier:

• Start with containers. Grouping pots at different heights, using bricks, stands, or shelves, is one of the simplest ways to experiment with abundance before committing a whole bed to the style.

• Repeat a color theme. Choosing two or three colors that complement a home's exterior and carrying them through pots, flowers, and foliage creates cohesion even in a densely planted space.

• Create a themed corner. A tropical nook, a cutting garden, or a shaded fern pocket adds a sense of discovery without requiring a full property overhaul.

• Take advantage of microclimates. A warm, sun-facing wall can support tender plants that wouldn't otherwise survive an Illinois winter outdoors, while shadier corners suit ferns, mosses, or woodland perennials.

• Play with vertical space. Trellises, climbing vines, and columnar plants make even a narrow side yard feel lush.

One botanical garden's own maximalist demonstration bed pairs tall sunflowers with coneflowers, creeping groundcovers, and a trellis of climbing beans, which is a useful template for scaling the look down to a single North Shore bed.

Maximalist Garden Design Creates “Intentional Abundance”

Maximalist gardening isn't about excess for its own sake; it's about intentional abundance. Featuring layered plants, repeated color, and curated collections, the concept makes outdoor spaces feel alive as opposed to cluttered. The style rewards homeowners who lean into personality over restraint, whether that means a hundred containers clustered on a small patio or one boldly layered bed tucked into a larger landscape.

It also doesn't require an estate to pull off. Many of the most memorable maximalist gardens started with a single container grouping or one corner of an existing yard, then grew from there as the gardener's confidence grew along with it. For North Shore homeowners curious about the abundant, more-is-more approach now trending across garden design, that kind of gradual start is often the easiest way in.

Whether the goal is a single show-stopping container grouping by the front door or a fully layered bed that hums with pollinators all summer long, the same principles apply: pick colors and plants that genuinely bring joy, layer them with intention, and let the space evolve season over season rather than trying to get it perfect on day one.

To bring maximalist garden design to your own North Shore property, contact the team at Pappas Landscape & Design.