How Goldie Hawn’s Pacific Palisades Garden Offers a Masterclass in Blending Plants and Water Features

Whoever thought we would be taking landscaping and planting advice from Goldie Hawn? The celebrated actor is best known for her decades-long, iconic Hollywood career and her enduring, decades-long romance with partner Kurt Russell, but her private garden is increasingly giving design enthusiasts plenty to talk about as well.

From the art of mastering container planting—often guided by what fans have come to know as Goldie’s one-plant rule—to the beautiful floral displays cultivated by her daughter, Kate Hudson, there is a wealth of inspiration to be found in how this famous family approaches their outdoor living spaces. And while casual observers might not initially expect a high-profile Hollywood estate to offer much in the way of practical, everyday gardening advice for the rest of us, it turns out that some of the most effective outdoor design ideas are also the simplest.

That realization brings us to one particularly lovely and immersive detail in Goldie’s Pacific Palisades garden: the harmonious, deliberate way that plants and water work together within the landscape.

Yes, Goldie Hawn’s Southern California home was recently featured in a prominent People magazine shoot, and the stunning outdoor space contained one of the best accidental lessons for garden design that enthusiasts are likely to see all year.

Perched alongside a fountain that gracefully flows into a crystalline swimming pool, the water feature is surrounded by dense, lush planting on all sides—so much so that the vibrant greenery looks nearly ready to swallow the structure whole. And while the architectural fountain itself is undeniably gorgeous, the core design lesson has very little to do with the stone or mechanics of the water feature itself. Instead, it has everything to do with the botanical life surrounding it. Take away the surrounding plants, and you are left with a nice, standard water feature. But leave them in place, wrapping the water in untamed layers, and your garden suddenly feels like something straight out of Jurassic Park—albeit in a wonderfully serene, refreshing way and entirely without the prehistoric predators.

Plants and water working together rather than standing separately is one of the most underused principles in modern garden design. Landscape professionals note that this technique applies just as easily to a tiny suburban backyard in North Carolina as it does to a multi-million-dollar Hollywood fountain at Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell’s estate.

Why Water and Plants Always Win Together

Industry experts point to the fundamental interplay between liquid elements and botanical life as the secret behind these captivating outdoor spaces. Kendahl Kreps, Director of Marketing at Oase North America, explains why water and plants work so exceptionally well when paired side by side.

Water naturally possesses a reflective, open quality, whereas plants introduce crucial elements of texture, rich color, organic movement, and a sense of enclosure. A fountain or waterfall gives the human eye an immediate, arresting focal point, while thoughtful planting softens the hard, manufactured edges around it. This integration makes the water feature feel truly native to the landscape rather than simply dropped into it as an afterthought.

Aiza, a sustainability writer at GreenerPulse, emphasizes this dynamic further, noting that a still water surface effectively doubles the visual impact of the surrounding planting through reflection. This optical illusion makes a garden look twice as full and established entirely for free. Meanwhile, moving water brings the dynamic sensory experiences of sound and shimmer, while plants bring a contrasting sense of stillness and tactile texture. In essence, one without the other often feels half-finished.

In the case of Goldie Hawn’s garden, the dense green vegetation framing the fountain intentionally slows down the observer’s gaze before it even reaches the water, creating a deliberate sense of discovery and immersion.

Which Plants Suit the Splash Zone?

As Goldie Hawn’s garden has vividly demonstrated, careful plant placement is paramount, because not every species is happy enduring the constant moisture and elevated humidity found directly around a water source.

Jon Graham, CEO of Element Plumbing, Heating and Air, whose professional teams frequently install outdoor water features, observes that the humidity levels immediately surrounding most water features run roughly 15% higher than the ambient air in the rest of the yard. This microclimate is precisely why moisture-loving plants like elephant ears and Japanese iris thrive so close to the source. Their broad leaves and robust, fibrous root systems are uniquely adapted to handle constant splashing without causing the base of the plant to rot.

Aiza’s recommended plant list for the wettest positions includes resilient choices like blue flag iris, pickerelweed, cardinal flower, marsh marigold, and dwarf cattail. Moving slightly further back from the immediate edge—where the surrounding soil stays consistently damp but avoids becoming fully waterlogged—are species like ligularia, astilbe, and shade-loving hostas.

Kendahl Kreps also highlights a practical favorite suited for smaller water features: Creeping Jenny. This vigorous ground cover will actively utilize excess splash water from a fountain to fuel its growth while naturally meandering its way toward the feature.

Layering for a Lush Result

Gardeners attempting this style must keep their plant arrangements from descending into chaotic overgrowth, as there is a fine line between a wild, lush aesthetic and an unmanaged thicket. The secret to bridging that gap is introducing intentional layering, much like the approach seen in Goldie Hawn’s landscape.

Industry experts largely agree on a foundational formula for successful garden layering. Tall ornamental grasses can anchor the back of the bed, mid-level sedges occupy the center, and low-growing ground covers like blue star creeper soften the very front edge, giving the eye a clear, guided path to follow.

A lush planting scheme does not mean cramming dozens of random, mismatched species around a water feature. Instead, designers suggest repeating a limited, cohesive selection of plants in distinct groups, ensuring that every layer serves a clear visual and ecological purpose.

Experts recommend capping the overall plant palette at five to seven distinct species, installing them in natural drifts of three, five, or seven, and repeating each plant in at least three different spots around the water feature to unify the design. Furthermore, giving the garden bed a crisp, clean edge made of stone or steel ensures the overall composition reads as an intentional, designed shape even as the plants fill in and spill over.

Getting the Tropical Feeling Without the California Climate

Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell reside in California, where a lush, jungle-like climate is relatively straightforward to cultivate outdoors. However, even gardeners living in significantly cooler, more temperate climates can achieve that same immersive, exotic atmosphere. The trick lies in focusing on leaf scale rather than relying on climate-sensitive tropical species.

Achieving this look is less about local weather and more about embracing big, bold leaves. Hardy banana plants, gunnera, giant hostas like Empress Wu, canna lilies, and Fatsia japonica can all generate dramatic broad-leaf impact in cooler regional gardens. The core trick is visual contrast: allowing a few bold, oversized leaves to rise up out of a fine-textured base of ferns and ornamental grasses creates a distinctly tropical feel, even in USDA growing zone 6.

In even harsher northern regions, bold leaf textures continue to do the heavy lifting. Hardy perennials like standard hostas, ligularia, and hardy hibiscus can easily survive harsh winters while still producing the dense, enveloping feel characteristic of a warm-climate oasis.

What to Avoid Near Water Features

While many plants seem like intuitive additions near a water source, certain species require careful consideration or outright avoidance. Industry professionals caution against invasive spreaders, noting that planting aggressive growers like mint directly adjacent to a water source can spell disaster. These plants can easily overtake entire garden beds in a single growing season and routinely clog pump intakes within two to three seasons if established too close to the feature.

Other species that look innocent on paper but can cause long-term headaches near water include purple loosestrife, yellow flag iris, and running bamboo. Meanwhile, drought-tolerant Mediterranean favorites like lavender and rosemary—while beautiful in other parts of the landscape—will quickly rot and die in the consistently damp environment of a fountain’s splash zone.

Ultimately, the overarching lesson drawn from Goldie Hawn’s Pacific Palisades garden is remarkably straightforward. Treat the water feature as the architectural anchor of the space, but remember that the surrounding planting provides the essential atmosphere and mood. By honoring the natural layers of the landscape and selecting plants that thrive in close proximity to moisture, homeowners can create an outdoor sanctuary that feels deeply luxurious, timeless, and effortlessly put-together.