If growing outdoors or out in the wild and you want to conceal your plants using other plants you have to pick/find local plants natural to that area to use. If not it will just draw more attention to your crop.
Over the years the plant I have seen most recommended to conceal plants is the sunflower. Tall, thin, long leaves, big flowers. Well that’s great unless in the middle of no where in a clearing there is a patch of sunflowers and there are none other for 50 or more miles unless in someone’s lawn/garden. If someone see them from the ground or from the air they are somewhat likely to think, that’s odd .. why are there a bunch of sunflowers there and none elsewhere?
Use the best you can that can be found naturally growing in the area or don’t bother to use anything and take your chances because the wrong choice will increase the odds of a plot being spotted.
If someone is talking about growing in their vegetable garden or flower garden or maybe at the back of a large lot that does not adjoin property were people almost ever if ever go and they just want to keep their plants from standing out like a sore thumb one thing I have done, but is a pain in the butt to do, is to continually bend and root your main-stem and even larger branches to the ground and force the plant to grow something like a cross between ground-cover and a long possibly twisting low bush.
It will always vary from strain to strain and also some on conditions so I will totally make up numbers to use in an example so please no one try to exactly duplicate the following and then later tell me how they snapped off a plant.
But here it goes: You pick some area with other plants, vegetables or ornamentals, that are not real tall so they would not block the light. You start a plant among/ in between them and then when it reaches maybe 11 or 12 inches you bend it over and at around 8 inches up the stem you dig a narrow shallow trench dug in the ground. You remove any leaves for about an inch or so scrape/slightly score the stem and apply rooting power/formula. You place the section of stem into the narrow shallow trench, use something like a piece of standard house wiring, thinner gauge, and you cut a piece or two and bend it into a ‘U’’ shape and push it down over the stem so it, or they, hold the stem in position until roots push out and hold, and then cover and mound with a little soil over the top. You have several inches of plant left sticking out of the soil after the area you buried the short section. Allow to grow, repeat bending/rooting. (using whatever height/distance that works best for you)
Each site you do that the plant will root and that holds the plant down and also increases root-mass which means increased access to more moisture and nutrients ..... so that’s not all that bad.
You keep repeating that at least through vegging and even if felt needed a bit into early flower, stopping before things start to really get going. The plant stem is sort of like a series of arches and branches and most of the bud will grow up from a general height level and then at the end you might have one taller piece that grows after the point where you really cannot bend and root again without losing more than you might be willing to lose to keep things low. You have to decide that point on your own. Depending on location it might never be a problem and in another it might be what kills the plan.
For longer branches that might want to get tall you can do the same as with the main-stem and direct them here and there.
I guess is I were to attempt to compare it to something it might be like SCROG minus the screen and having a freeflowing ability to change directions as wanted or needed. It keeps most of the vegetation lower to the ground and like in a SCROG the bud formation is more like a series of small colas in appearance rather than how bud normally form on plants that grow in a normal upward way.
It will never keep anyone who knows what an herb plant looks like from spotting it if they look at it. The best it can do is help create a situation where is done right and used in a good location it reduces the chances that people will ever notice the plants in the first place let alone identify them.
That of course means you do not attempt this in the flower gardens on either side of your front door or along the road out front. It would not be smart to attempt in an area that might seldom if ever have people close to it but is in clear sight by some nosy neighbor with binoculars who might see you doing your extensive gardening in what seems an odd location … so one day they decide to take a piece.
You have to have places to use where it will work or the idea is worthless to you. If you would decide you wanted to try it most likely there would not be as many places available to you as you would hope but maybe one or two more than you might expect if you think things through well. Now it is a pain to do, especially if someone is not much into the actual gardening part of growing, and also if someone has more than just a few plants … but it can be done if someone just wants to or needs to try something and that sounds good to them.
It is rather unusual and it is far from being practical if there are any better options available. Now and then though it can come in handy for someone.