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A People magazine feature of Goldie Hawn’s Pacific Palisades home showed a fountain flowing into a pool, surrounded by dense planting. Gardening Know How’s report uses the scene to illustrate practical design ideas: choose plants suited to damp conditions, repeat a limited palette and layer plants by height.
A People magazine feature of Goldie Hawn’s Pacific Palisades home showed a fountain flowing into a pool, surrounded by dense planting—a garden detail that Gardening Know How presents as a practical example of how plants can make a water feature feel part of its setting. The report’s design lesson is relevant beyond Hawn’s garden: use plants suited to the damp conditions near water, and arrange them in layers rather than treating the fountain as a stand-alone object.
The Gardening Know How report describes Hawn perched on a fountain that flows into a pool, with lush plants around the feature. It does not identify the plants shown in the photograph or say whether the garden was deliberately designed as a demonstration. Its advice is an interpretation of the scene, supported by comments from landscape and water-feature professionals.
Kendahl Kreps, director of marketing at Oase North America, said water provides a reflective, open quality while plants add texture, colour, movement and enclosure. In her view, planting can soften the hard edges of a fountain or waterfall so it feels integrated into the landscape rather than simply placed there. Sustainability writer Aiza, of GreenerPulse, added that a still surface can reflect surrounding greenery, while moving water adds sound and shimmer.
The report also stresses that plant choice depends on distance from the water. It lists blue flag iris, pickerelweed, cardinal flower, marsh marigold and dwarf cattail for wetter positions. Farther from the splash, where soil is damp but not waterlogged, it names ligularia, astilbe and shade-tolerant hostas. Kreps identifies creeping Jenny as an option near smaller features, saying it can grow with excess splash and trail toward the water.
How Planting Changes a Water Feature
The design point is that a fountain’s surroundings affect how it reads. Water provides a focal point, but surrounding greenery can soften its edges and connect it visually with the rest of a garden. Reflections, foliage and movement may make a small feature feel more enclosed and established without requiring a large structure.
The advice also gives homeowners a practical way to adapt the look to their own conditions. The report does not suggest that every garden needs a fountain or a tropical planting scheme. Instead, it emphasizes matching plants to moisture and light, and organizing them so the arrangement appears intentional. That makes the example useful even where space, climate or budget differ from Hawn’s California garden.
There is a maintenance consideration behind the visual effect: plants beside water experience different moisture conditions from those elsewhere in a yard. Selecting species for the wettest spots and placing less water-tolerant plants farther back can help avoid problems associated with persistently soggy soil. The article offers general design guidance, not a site-specific planting plan.
blue flag iris plants for pond edges
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The Planting Advice Behind the Image
Gardening Know How places the fountain scene among other garden ideas associated with Hawn and her family, but the report’s focus is this particular relationship between water and surrounding plants. The home was featured in People magazine; the source does not provide the date of that feature or detailed information about when the photograph was taken.
The report quotes three specialists on water-feature planting. Kreps discusses the visual relationship between water and greenery. Jon Graham, CEO of Element Plumbing, Heating and Air, describes how moisture near water features can affect plant choice. Aiza gives suggestions for both planting positions and the overall composition. These are attributed recommendations, not a documented planting inventory from Hawn’s garden.
For a layered arrangement, Graham recommends tall ornamental grasses at the back, mid-level sedges in the middle and low ground covers, such as blue star creeper, at the edge. Kreps advises repeating a limited number of plants in groups rather than mixing dozens of species. Aiza suggests a palette of five to seven plants, repeated in groups, and a defined stone or steel border to keep the bed’s shape legible as it fills in.
The source also addresses gardeners in cooler climates. Rather than copying species suited to California, Aiza recommends focusing on leaf scale and contrast, citing hardy banana, gunnera, large hostas, canna lilies and Fatsia japonica as plants that can create broad-leaf effects in temperate gardens. Local hardiness and growing conditions still matter.
“A fountain or waterfall gives the eye a focal point; planting softens the hard edges around it and makes the feature feel integrated into the landscape rather than simply placed in it.”
— Kendahl Kreps, director of marketing at Oase North America
What the Garden Feature Does Not Confirm
The source does not identify the plants actually growing around Hawn’s fountain, explain who designed or maintains the garden, or give measurements for the feature. It also does not provide a date for the People magazine shoot. The named species and layout recommendations come from the report’s quoted experts; they should not be read as a confirmed description of Hawn’s planting scheme.
The report includes a general estimate from Graham that humidity around many water features can run roughly 15% higher than in the surrounding yard. It gives no measurement method or site-specific reading for Hawn’s garden, so that figure does not establish the humidity around her fountain. Plant suitability will also vary by climate, sunlight, soil and the amount of splash at a particular site.
Adapting the Idea to Local Conditions
For readers considering a similar feature, the report’s advice points to a practical sequence: assess how wet the soil becomes at different distances from the water, choose plants suited to those positions, then arrange them in repeated layers by height. A clearly defined edge can keep the planting looking deliberate as it grows.
The source does not announce any new project or follow-up from Hawn, and it gives no indication that her garden will be opened to the public. The next step for gardeners is therefore local rather than tied to a further development in the celebrity feature: check plant hardiness and site conditions before choosing species, and treat the pictured garden as inspiration rather than a planting blueprint.
Key Questions
What did the feature show at Goldie Hawn’s home?
A People magazine feature showed Hawn at a fountain that flows into a pool, with dense planting surrounding the water feature. Gardening Know How uses the scene to discuss garden design.
Which plants does the report suggest for wet areas?
For wetter positions, the report lists blue flag iris, pickerelweed, cardinal flower, marsh marigold and dwarf cattail. It suggests placing plants such as ligularia, astilbe and hostas farther back, where soil is damp but not waterlogged.
How can gardeners make planting around a fountain look organized?
The quoted experts recommend layering plants by height, repeating a limited selection in groups and defining the bed with an edge such as stone or steel. The report presents these as general design suggestions, not details confirmed about Hawn’s garden.
Can gardeners in cooler climates create a similar look?
The report says gardeners can focus on large leaves and contrasting textures rather than trying to reproduce California conditions. It names hardy banana, gunnera, large hostas, canna lilies and Fatsia japonica as possible choices, subject to local growing conditions.
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