Early spring is a great time to start planning your plantings for the coming season. Look over photos of your garden from last year to see where blank spaces occur or where the design of your flower plantings could be elevated. One of the most wonderful opportunities we have to "lift" our garden to a whole new level is by incorporating vertical elements into the design. In the vegetable garden, this might mean adding some sunflowers or trellised pole beans to add another dimension to the design (and maximize production space!). It's a bit more difficult to accomplish in a flower garden, however, because most of us don't have money in our gardening budget, or the building skills, to erect an attractive trellis or pergola to bring a measure of vertical to the design. But, there is another way to elevate your flower borders that requires a much smaller investment: plants. Tall, narrow flowering plants interspersed throughout the garden add a whole new depth of space and draw the eye through the garden. Thankfully, there's no shortage of flowering plants that fit the description "tall and spiky." Here are some of my favorite plants to add bursts of height to flower gardens. Foxglove: These biennials come in many different colors, including white, pink, purple and yellow. Their large, bell-shaped flowers are prized by bumblebees. Most varieties of foxgloves are biennials, so the first year, they'll produce just green growth. Flowering doesn't occur until the second year, so when you plant them, be sure to plant some first year plants and some mature ones with buds already on them. Then let the plants drop seed after flowering to always have more plants each year. Hollyhocks: Another biennial, hollyhocks are terrific, old-fashioned, reliable bloomers. They come in a wide range of colors, including red, purple, yellow, white and peach. Hollyhocks can grow quite large and are easy to grow from seed sown directly into the garden. Again, let these biennial plants drop seed and you'll have new plants in bloom every year. Dephinium: Yes, they are a little fussy, but if you have success growing delphiniums, you can consider your thumb to be extra green. These tall, blue or white flower stalks will be the talk of the town. Delphinium prefer well-drained soils and full sun. You'll need to stake the blooms because they're so heavy the weight of the flowers will snap the stems. If you have had trouble growing delphiniums in the past, perhaps consider growing them as an annual, rather than trying to get them to overwinter. Though most species are hardy here, their roots often don't survive our wet winter clay-based soils. Eremurus: Oh, how I love the foxtail lily! Though it's not a lily at all, the tall plumes of eremurus do indeed resemble a fox's tail. They are showy and stand tall atop a skinny stem. They grow from a bulb-like tuber and make an excellent cut flower. The bulbs are planted in either spring or fall in a location with full to partial sun. Some varieties can grow up to 8 feet tall! Flowers come in orange, pink, yellow and salmon-coral. To effectively add these plants to your border, use them as a consistent design element. Place one (or a group of three or five of the same plant) every few feet down the length of your garden, alternating their depth as you go down the line. Some groups should be toward the front of the garden, some toward the middle and some toward the back. Doing this guides your eye through the garden while still providing consistency throughout. You can use the same species of plant in every placement or alternate between two or three different types of plants. Adding a vertical element to the garden in this way goes a long way towards creating a cohesive, interesting design without breaking the bank. Horticulturist Jessica Walliser is the author of several gardening books, including "Attracting Beneficial Bugs to Your Garden,” "Good Bug, Bad Bug,” and her newest title, "Container Gardening Complete.” Her website is jessicawalliser.com. Send your gardening or landscaping questions to tribliving@tribweb.com or The Good Earth, 622 Cabin Hill Drive, Greensburg, PA 15601.