Creating Your First Garden

Before you begin

A good garden design starts with knowing your space. This walkthrough builds a small mixed border with spring bulbs, summer perennials, and fall interest — a classic pattern that gives you colour from March through October.

What you'll learn

• Basic garden planning principles
• How to choose plants for your conditions
• Building seasonal interest into a design
• Using Garden Sketchbook's tools together
• Turning your design into a printable plan

Step 1: Plan your space

Consider your conditions

Before you open the plant library, think about:

• Sunlight — how many hours of direct sun does the area get?
• Soil — well-draining, clay-heavy, sandy, or somewhere in between?
• Hardiness zone — you'll use this to filter the plant library.
• Size — rough dimensions of the space you're designing.
• Existing features — trees, paths, walls, downspouts, and anything else you have to work around.

Set your account preferences

Your hardiness zone system (USDA, Canadian, or RHS), your zone, and your measurement units (feet or metres) are set once during the welcome flow, and can be changed any time from Account → Preferences. These drive plant filtering and dimension labels, so it's worth getting them right up front.

Step 2: Choose a plant palette

For this first garden, we're aiming for a mixed border with something happening every season. Filter the library by your hardiness zone, then look for plants in these three groups.

Spring bloomers

Start with plants that give you the first colour of the year:

• Daffodils — reliable spring bulbs, deer-resistant
• Tulips — bright spring colour in various heights
• Forsythia — early yellow blooms on a shrub

Summer perennials

Long-blooming plants that carry the middle of the year:

• Coneflowers (Echinacea) — pollinator favourite
• Daylilies — dependable colour, grass-like foliage
• Hostas — foliage plants for shadier spots
• Black-eyed Susans — bright yellow blooms that bridge summer and fall

Fall interest

Plants that keep the design going into autumn:

• Asters — late-season purple or white
• Ornamental grasses — movement now, structure through winter
• Sedum — succulent with late summer to fall blooms

Step 3: Design your layout

Start with anchor plants

Place your largest plants first — trees and big shrubs. They set the scale for everything else.

1. Drag a shrub (say, Forsythia) from the plant library onto the canvas. A faint outline shows its mature spread as you drag.
2. Drop it near the back or a corner of the space, where a large plant won't hide smaller ones.
3. Add two or three more shrubs, spaced by their mature sizes.

Add perennial groups

Plant perennials in odd-numbered groups (3, 5, 7) for a natural look. The easiest way is to pick a plant, then click on the canvas to drop several instances in a row — the editor stays in add mode until you press Escape.

1. Pick Coneflowers from the library.
2. Click the canvas 3–5 times to drop a natural-looking drift.
3. Press Escape, then repeat with Black-eyed Susans and Daylilies.

Fill in the bulbs

Bulbs can go close together and among perennials, since they'll be dormant when everything else is at full size.

1. Add clusters of Daffodils throughout the border.
2. Group Tulips near the front for spring visibility.

Step 4: Check the seasonal display

Use the season bar at the bottom of the 3D view to step through the year and see how your design plays out.

Spring

1. Click Mid Spring — the first navigable season.
2. Note which plants are in bloom (bulbs and Forsythia should be doing the work).
3. Check that colour is spread across the design rather than clumped.

Summer

1. Click Mid Summer — peak growing season.
2. Check that perennials give the border good coverage.
3. Orbit around the 3D view to look for overcrowding at mature size.

Fall

1. Click Late Fall.
2. Look for late-season colour and structure that will carry into winter.

Step 5: Refine the design

Check spacing

Orbit around the 3D view and look for:

• Plants that touch at maturity but don't overlap significantly
• Clear paths through the border for maintenance
• Shorter plants that are getting lost behind taller ones

Adjust for visual balance

Back in 2D, click and drag plants to fine-tune the design:

• Group plants in loose triangles rather than straight lines
• Distribute colour across the space instead of concentrating it in one spot
• Make sure every season has at least two or three points of visual interest

Add finishing touches

• Ornamental grasses for movement and winter structure
• Groundcover to fill bare spots
• A few annuals for a burst of extra summer colour

Step 6: Print your plan

When you're happy with the design, click Create Printable Plan (the printer icon at the top of the editor) to turn it into a plan you can take to the nursery.

What's in the printable plan

• Scaled diagram with every plant numbered
• Plant list with common and scientific names and quantities
• Scale legend (1 square = 1 foot or 30.5 cm)

See Printing & Exporting for the dialog options (whole garden vs visible area, grid on or off) and how printing works on the demo tier.

Implementation tips

Planting order

When you're ready to plant in real life, work in this order:

1. Prep the soil — remove weeds, amend as needed.
2. Trees and shrubs first — they're the biggest and set the frame.
3. Perennials next — spring or fall for best establishment.
4. Bulbs — plant in fall for spring bloom.
5. Mulch — two or three inches around everything.

Shopping with your plan

• Take the printed plant list to the nursery.
• Smaller plants are usually a better buy — they establish faster and fill in naturally.
• Ask nursery staff about substitutions if a specific variety isn't stocked.

First-year care

• Water new plantings regularly through their first growing season.
• Don't expect a mature garden immediately — most designs take two or three years (or more) to really fill in.
• Take a photo each season; it's the easiest way to track how things are going.
• Keep notes on what you want to change next year.

Where to go next

• Plant Library — try themed searches (butterfly garden, shade garden, drought-tolerant)
• Seasonal Planning — deeper strategy for year-round interest
• 2D Design Tools — draw beds and paths, add buildings, trace a reference image