Landscape design guides
Plain, practical references for homeowners and professionals — the same rules OpenLandscape3D checks as you design. Also see the glossary and the free tools.
Planning
From a first sketch to a plan and schedule you can build from.
How to Plan a Backyard Landscape: A Step-by-Step Guide
Plan a backyard landscape in the right order: goals, base map, sun and drainage, soil tests, calling 811, outdoor rooms, hardscape, planting layers and phasing.
9 min read
Planting Plans and Plant Schedules: How to Read and Make Them
What a planting plan and plant schedule contain, how to count plants from area and spacing, triangular vs square spacing, frost-date timing and aftercare.
8 min read
Planting
Mature sizes, screens, pollinators and plant choice.
Pollinator Garden Design: Bloom, Hosts and Habitat
Design a pollinator garden that works all season: continuous bloom, varied flower forms, host plants, drifts, nesting sites, water, and safer pest control.
7 min read
Privacy Screen Planting: Layers, Spacing and Timing
Plan a planted privacy screen: layered vs single-species hedges, evergreens by region, spacing math for single and staggered rows, and realistic time to screen.
9 min read
Reading Mature Plant Sizes: Height, Spread and Growth Rate
How to read mature plant sizes on tags, estimate year 3 and year 10 sizes with a growth curve, space plants on centre, and avoid crowded beds and hedges.
8 min read
Site
Sun, shade, water, drainage and hardscape.
Drought-Tolerant Landscape Design That Stays Cool
Design a drought-tolerant landscape: hydrozones, soil and mulch, establishment watering, lawn reduction, regional plants, permeable paving and rainwater.
7 min read
Hardscape Materials Guide: Patios, Paths and Walls
Compare patio and path materials, from concrete and pavers to flagstone, gravel, DG and decking, with typical base depths, drainage slope and wall limits.
7 min read
Rain Garden Design: Siting, Sizing, Soil and Plants
How to design a rain garden: where to put it, how to run a percolation test, size it from the drainage area, shape the berm and overflow, and plant its zones.
9 min read
Sun and Shade Mapping for Your Yard: A Practical Method
Map sun and shade in your yard: full sun, part sun and shade defined, how to record light through the day and seasons, shadow lengths, and matching plants.
8 min read
Regions
Native plants and timing for each pilot region.
Native Plants for the Northeast: A Layered Garden Palette
Native plants for Northeast gardens from Maine to Pennsylvania: climate, soils, trees, shrubs, perennials and grasses by layer, bloom sequence and deer.
8 min read
Native Plants for the Southeast: Heat, Humidity and Storms
Native plants for Southeast gardens: coping with heat, humidity, clay, sand and storms, plus a layered palette of trees, shrubs, perennials and grasses.
8 min read
Native Plants for the Southwest: Desert Garden Palette
Native plants for Southwest desert gardens: aridity, monsoon, caliche and elevation, plus a palette of desert trees, shrubs, succulents and wildflowers.
8 min read
Software
Choosing tools and moving designs between them.
Import Your House from OpenPlan3D into OpenLandscape3D
Bring an OpenPlan3D house into OpenLandscape3D, set north and frost dates, design the yard around it, then export it back to OpenPlan3D with Import JSON.
7 min read
Landscape Design Software: An Honest Overview
Compare landscape design software by category, from CAD and landscape suites to browser planners, AR apps and paper, and choose using clear selection criteria.
6 min read
Free tools
Start designing in your browser
OpenLandscape3D is free and open source. Draw the site, place regional plants, and scrub through seasons and years before anything goes in the ground.