Decide on a Location

Before you pick a spot for your after-six garden, observe the moon’s path for several nights and note where it is least obstructed by trees and casts the fewest shadows. Peacefulness is paramount, so be sure to keep a safe distance from traffic noise and neighbors.

Choose Your Flowers and Foliage

To ensure the greatest nocturnal visibility, settle on a palette of pale petals and foliage that really stands out at night. Consider whites, pastels, chartreuse, and silver gray plants and flowers, which typically appear wan under the sun’s brightest light but come into their own at dusk and into the evening.

Install Your Garden

Plant the front edge of the garden bed with low ground covers. In the middle, use plants that stand between 12 and 24 inches tall. Anchor the back of the garden with plants that are at least two feet high. (Read plant tags to check their height specs.) Make sure soil and light are adequate: To do their job in the evening hours, these nighttime performers need good growing conditions during the day.

Shown in Picture

Cleome and other tall plants lend drama and dimension. Another option: fragrant nicotiana (flowering tobacco).

Fans of petunias know the flower comes in a rainbow of colors, but in this garden the variety known as ‘White Wave’ really pops. It also has nonstop blooms and is easy to grow, spreading as much as three feet in one season.

Some plants, such as these angels’ trumpets (center), which are fragrant only after dark, have the added benefit of attracting night pollinators (mainly moths).

Sweet alyssum’s masses of tiny white flowers are at their best in the moonlight.