Whoever thought we’d be taking planting advice from Goldie Hawn? The talented actor is best known for her decades-long Hollywood career (and her enduring romance with Kurt Russell), but her garden is increasingly giving us plenty to talk about, too.

From the art of getting container planting just right (it's all down to Goldie's one-plant rule) to the beautiful floral displays of her daughter, Kate Hudson, there’s inspiration to be found in this family’s approach to outdoor spaces. And while you might not expect a Hollywood garden to offer much in the way of practical advice for the rest of us, sometimes the most effective design ideas are also the simplest.

That brings us to one particularly lovely detail in Goldie’s Pacific Palisades garden: the way plants and water work together.

Goldie Hawn's Water Garden

Yes, Goldie Hawn’s Pacific Palisades home was featured in a People magazine shoot, and the outdoor space contained one of the best accidental lessons for garden design you’ll see this year.

Perched on a fountain that flows into a pool, she is surrounded by dense, lush planting on all sides, so much so that it looks like it might swallow her up. And, while the fountain is gorgeous, the lesson has very little to do with it and more with the plants themselves. Take away the plants, and you have a nice water feature, but leave them, and your garden feels like something straight out of Jurassic Park (in a good way, and without the dinosaurs).

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Plants and water working together rather than separately is one of the most underused principles in garden design, and it applies to your tiny backyard in suburban North Carolina as it does in a Hollywood fountain at Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell’s house.

Why Water and Plants Always Win Together

Kendahl Kreps, Director of Marketing at Oase North America, explains why water and plants work so well together. She says that“water has a naturally reflective, open quality, while plants introduce texture, colour, movement and enclosure. 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.”

Aiza, sustainability writer at GreenerPulse, emphasizes this, saying, “a still surface doubles the planting in reflection, so the garden looks twice as full for free. Moving water brings sound and shimmer; plants bring stillness and texture. One without the other feels half finished.”

In the case of Goldie Hawn’s garden, the dense green plants around the fountain slow down your eye before it even reaches the water, and that’s not accidental.

Which Plants Suit the Splash Zone?

As Goldie Hawn's garden has well and truly proven, placement is highly important, as not every plant is super happy with constant moisture around its roots. Jon Graham, CEO of Element Plumbing, Heating and Air, whose team installs outdoor water features professionally, notes that “the humidity around most water features runs roughly 15% higher than the surrounding yard; that’s why moisture-loving plants like elephant ears and Japanese iris thrive close to the source. Their broad leaves and fibrous root systems handle constant splash without rotting at the base.”

Aiza’s list for the wettest positions includes blue flag iris, pickerelweed, cardinal flower, marsh marigold, and dwarf cattail. Slightly further back, where the soil stays damp but not waterlogged: ligularia, astilbe, and hostas in shaded spots.

Kreps adds a practical favorite for smaller water features: “A common plant used near smaller water features is Creeping Jenny, which will actually use the excess splash to grow while walking itself into the feature.”

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Layering for a Lush Result

You’ll want to keep your plant design from becoming chaotic, as there is a fine line between that and lush, and the key is to make like Goldie Hawn and introduce layering. All three experts agree on the same basic formula, and Graham puts it clearly. He says, “Tall ornamental grasses at the back, mid-level sedges in the middle, and low ground covers like blue star creeper along the edge give the eye a clear path to follow.”

Kreps adds, “A lush planting scheme doesn’t mean putting dozens of different plants around the fountain. Instead, repeat a limited number of plants in groups and give each layer a clear job.”

Aiza recommends capping the palette at five to seven plants total, planting in drifts of three, five, or seven, and repeating each plant in at least three spots around the feature. The other essential: “Give the bed a crisp edge, stone or steel, so the planting reads as a designed shape even when it fills in.”

Getting the Tropical Feeling Without the California Climate

Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell live in California, where a jungle-like climate is highly achievable in their garden. However, even if you live in a cooler climate, you can still get the same thing; it just requires thinking about leaf scale rather than specific species.

“You do not need California weather, you need big leaves,” says Aiza. Hardy banana, gunnera, giant hostas like Empress Wu, canna lilies, and Fatsia japonica all create that broad-leaf drama in temperate gardens. “The trick is contrast: a few bold leaves rising out of fine ferns and grasses reads tropical even in zone 6.”

Graham adds that “in cooler climates, bold leaf texture does the heavy lifting — hostas, ligularia and hardy hibiscus all handle zone 4 winters and still produce that dense, tropical feel.”

What to Avoid

Some plants seem like obvious choices near water, but actually they should be used with caution. Graham is direct on invasive spreaders: “The biggest mistake I see is planting invasive spreaders like mint directly near the water source. They overtake beds in a single growing season and can clog pump intakes within two to three seasons if planted less than 18 inches from the feature.”

Aiza flags purple loosestrife, yellow flag iris, and running bamboo as plants that look innocent near water and then cause serious problems. And lavender or rosemary, however beautiful elsewhere, will rot quickly in a consistently damp splash zone.

The lesson from Goldie Hawn’s Pacific Palisades garden is simple, then. Treat the water feature as an anchor, but remember the planting gives it the atmosphere you’re looking for. If you get the layers right and choose plants that actually want to be there, the result looks far more expensive than it actually is.