Parking Lot Landscaping: 10 Ways to Transform Your Commercial Parking Lot from Unremarkable to Astonishing

If you think your commercial parking lot is an unimportant part of your building’s design, think again. High-quality commercial parking lot landscaping can elevate the look and feel of your entire property.

When it comes to commercial properties, what do you consider their most important aspects? If you’re like most people, parking lots probably don’t even fall within the top five.

But they should, because parking lots are one of the first things people see when they arrive at your building and, as a result, parking lots have a big impact on people’s perception of your building and business.

So, the obvious next question on your mind is probably this: how do you go about giving your commercial parking lot some visual appeal?

We’re glad you asked.

10 Landscape Ideas for Commercial Parking Lots

Giving your commercial parking lot an impressive aesthetic might feel a bit counterintuitive. But we’ve compiled ten tips, tricks, and considerations to help you pull it off.

Modern Elite Aluminum Planters at Andromeda HQ in Long Island City, NY. 📷: Client

 1. Create a Parking Lot Landscape Plan

First and foremost, you need to formulate a plan for how you’ll approach your commercial parking lot. So, we recommend starting with a landscape parking lot landscape plan.

To do this right, you need to understand a few key things.

First are the six landscape design principles: balance, focalization, simplicity, rhythm and line, proportion, and unity.

Second, you need to understand the seven fundamental rules of landscaping which, according to many experts, can help you achieve those six principles:

1. The Law of Significant Enclosure
2. The Regulating Line
3. The Golden Rectangle
4. Thomas D. Church’s Rules for Designing Steps
5. Plant Properly
6. Pay Attention to How Plants Interact
7. Respect the Genius of the Place

Finally, using these rules, you need to understand how to build your landscape plan. You can do so by following these steps:

• Consider its purpose
• Think big picture first
• Narrow the focus
• Get granular

If you’d like to learn about this process in-depth, check out our article, The 7 Design Rules to Implement in Your Landscape Design Concept, where we explore these steps comprehensively.

As they say, a challenge that’s well defined is a challenge half solved. The same applies to your parking lot landscape design. So, creating a well-defined plan is the first step toward achieving your goals.

2. Design Stunning Green Spaces

Your parking lot doesn’t have to be entirely asphalt. Within your parking lot landscaping plan, you can think about incorporating all kinds of green spaces, from grass patches and trees to commercial parking lot planters and more.

Having dedicated green spaces will make your parking lot feel more organic and welcoming to set the tone for your staff and visitors.

3. Add Low Maintenance Plants

While you want your parking lot to be green and beautiful, you also have to consider the fact that it won’t necessarily be the easiest area to maintain greenery because of challenges such as watering plants and cleaning up fallen debris.

So, in the green spaces you create within your commercial parking lot, think about using low-maintenance plants that don’t require a ton of water, are able to handle direct sunlight, and don’t give off a ton of debris to clean up.

It’s wise to consider plants native to your region as they’ll have the best chance of thriving in your parking lot, even if conditions are challenging.

That said, if you do find yourself picking plants that require some watering and maintenance, you can think about self-watering planters as a way to make irrigation easier.

4. Create Shaded Areas

Have you ever come back to your car in the summer months only to find it swelteringly hot? The seats are boiling. It’s stuffy. It’s an overall unpleasant experience.

One way to prevent this from happening is to create shaded areas to reduce direct sunlight on the vehicles in your parking lot. You can do this using a variety of trees that help block the sun’s warming rays.

5. Build Pathways and Hardscapes

Put yourself in the shoes of the people visiting your commercial property. One way or another, you need to get from your vehicle to the front doors of the building.

Would you rather do so by walking across asphalt? Or would your experience be enhanced that much more by walking on a beautiful pathway?

Think about using brick or stone pathways to lead from your parking lot to the front door of your building, and don’t be shy about adding some greenery to line them.

Not only will adding pathways and hardscapes be a nice visual touch, but it’ll also help guide your staff and visitors into your building more quickly and efficiently.

PurePots Fiberglass Planters at SCAN Design in Altamonte Springs, FL 📷: VHT Studios

6. Plant a Wide Range of Flowers

As they say, variety is the spice of life! So, when you’re picking plants for your commercial parking lot planters, don’t hold back on getting a variety.

Adding a wide range of colors, sizes, and types of plants and flowers can help elevate your space and make it stand out.

Remember, the goal is to create an experience that surprises and delights people when they arrive at your commercial building. And what’s more surprising than a lush and green parking lot?

7. Use Shrubs Instead of Fences

In many instances, city regulations require fences to be installed between lots and adjacent institutional or residential areas. And while many landscape design plans simply build fences and leave them as they are, you have a great opportunity to elevate the visual appeal of these fences by incorporating small trees, shrubs, and vines.

8. Line the Area with Bioswales

Your parking lot landscaping doesn’t just offer visual benefits. It can also provide natural drainage and filter stormwater.

You can consider lining your area with bioswales. Bioswales are linear vegetated ditches that allow for the collection, conveyance, filtration, and infiltration of stormwater. These landscaping features remove pollutants and silt from stormwater and direct it toward a larger water collection system to minimize flooding.

To make them even more aesthetically pleasing, you can landscape them with grasses, shrubs, and perennials.

9. Hire Professional Landscapers

There are a lot of projects that can be done as a DIY endeavor, but commercial parking lot landscaping is one undertaking where you’re better off hiring a professional to help you out.

If you’re considering creating an incredible parking lot landscape, we’d recommend finding a local specialist to make sure you get it done right. And if you’re in search of high-quality planters and expertise, PureModern works collaboratively with landscape architects to create incredible parking lots using the right planters.

PurePots Fiberglass Planters at SCAN Design in Altamonte Springs, FL 📷: VHT Studios

10. What to Avoid When Landscaping a Parking Lot

Now that we’ve talked about the things you should consider incorporating into your commercial parking lot landscaping, we should also mention a few things to avoid.

We recommend avoiding:

• Planting trees under overhead service wires
• Planting trees or plants with low-hanging branches that may scrape or damage cars
• Using thorny plants that may scratch people
• Incorporating plants that might drop seeds, blossoms, or pods that may clog draining or create unwanted clutter

With the right approach, you can transform your commercial parking lot from a plain and unremarkable patch of pavement into a beautiful space that conveys an amazing first impression for anyone heading into your building.

If you’re curious about picking the perfect planters for your commercial parking lot landscaping project, contact us to speak with one of our experts today. We’re here to help answer any questions you might have.