The ultimate guide to garden design for beginners, from sketching ideas to choosing your favorite flowers

Even if you are a gardening beginner, applying simple principles of garden design to your own outside space is easier than you think. Garden design for beginners should be fun and creative, so don’t feel overwhelmed. 

The first step is to consider how you would like to use your garden – for relaxing, entertaining, raising vegetables perhaps. 

Then consider the atmosphere you want to create. Much will depend on the size and shape of your plot, where the sun falls and whether you’re overlooked by neighbors, but ask yourself; do you want your garden to feel sociable, secluded, reflective, or welcoming to pets and children? The latest garden trends cater to all lifestyles, so the choice really is yours.

And remember, different zones can meet each demand in even the smallest backyard. Don't forget to factor in your best outdoor furniture too.

 “If you’ve decided that this is the year you’re going to create the garden you’ve always wanted, you can break down the project into zones,” says Karen McClure, founder of Karen McClure Garden Design. “Then you will have ‘mini’ projects that can be implemented as and when time and budget allow.”

Garden design for beginners: a step-by-step guide

The key starting point for garden design beginners is to gather your garden design ideas. Good sources of inspiration include visiting open gardens. Try to visit gardens in your local area where soil and other conditions may be similar to your own. 

When you begin to establish the kind of garden design you would like to achieve, look on Instagram and Pinterest for examples. Creating a Pinterest board to gather all the images you’ve taken and those you’ve found online is a very useful tip for garden design beginners.

The next step is to think about how you would like to use your garden. 

This will help you decide what features the space will need to include, says Elaine Bailey, founder of Elaine Bailey Gardens. The list might include; a dining area, relaxed outdoor seating, a pond or other water feature, an area for vegetable gardening, a summer house, and a greenhouse.

And don’t forget the functional bits. You should consider practical elements such as bin storage, a washing line in a sunny accessible spot, a storage shed, and access to, from, and across the garden.

What's the simplest way to get started with garden design?

The simplest way to get started with garden design is to get a piece of paper says garden designer Juliet Sargeant at The Sussex Garden School: “Writing things down and sketching out ideas, even if you’re not very good at drawing, is one of the tips every garden design beginner should know." 

A good place to start is to write a list of all the things in your garden which are not doing what you want them to. So maybe your outdoor dining area is too small, existing paths don’t work effectively with your washing line, and flower beds and borders are either too large, too small, or non-existent. 

Then add a list of things you would like; a larger patio, an outdoor kitchen idea, re-routed paths, and colorful flower beds and borders. This will give you a framework on which to hang everything else.

Also, consider if everything is in the right place: “Have you got the best place to sit, the nicest place to put a barbeque? Analyze the way you use the garden so it starts to function for you.”

And then, Juliet adds, “you can get into what I call the arty, dreamy side, choosing colors and color combinations for the garden and the plants, of course.” She suggests using colored pencils to sketch out the shades you like in ‘clumps’, so you can experiment with different effects and color combinations.

“Professionals call these working drawings,” she says. “But I’m total of the opinion that doing some scribbles on a page is vital even for garden design beginners. It’s not artwork. No one else is ever going to see it. There are all sorts of color theories. But your garden is your own. You can be very tasteful with pinks and lilacs, or go for a bright color combination that you love.”

Where do I start when designing a garden?

The starting point for any new garden design is a survey of your existing plot. “Invest in a long tape measure and some graph paper and start by drawing the footprint of your house, then measure out where all the boundaries of the garden are,” says Elaine.

Once this is done, mark on the positions all the features of your garden which you intend to keep, or which have to stay. Also, mark the positions of any planting which will be kept including trees. 

Is there a lovely view you want to enhance? Keep this in mind as you start to think about designing the space.

One of Elaine’s top tips regarding garden design for beginners is to sneak a peek over the fence into next door’s garden: “Their trees may cast shade, or you may have to screen off an ugly building.” 

When thinking about the best shrubs and cottage garden plants too, what thrives in neighboring gardens will most likely be happy in your own scheme.

Always bear in mind where the sun is and how it moves across your garden; “This will help when deciding where to position seating or dining areas and will inform your plant choices,” says Elaine.

Professional gardeners would not consider making plant choices without first testing the PH level of the soil to find out if it’s acidic or alkaline, to check moisture levels, and establish what kind of soil (for example, clay-based, chalky, sandy) it is. Soil testing kits are available at garden centers and online for $15 at Amazon and would make a great gift for a garden design beginner.

What are the basics of garden design?

It’s tempting to be seduced by the latest garden trends such as Mediterranean-style planting and even natural swimming ponds, but whilst keeping up to date, professional garden designers stick to the simple basics of garden design they always follow.

 These are easy to understand if you’re a garden design beginner. Starting with the lawns, patios, and paths is the professional rule.

 “When professionals design a garden, they will first design the open spaces – the voids, as we call them,” says Elaine. “When people look at a garden, the eye can only read the shapes of open spaces, for example, lawns, terraces, driveways, ponds, and paths.” If you’re looking for garden design advice for beginners, follow this step first.

Flowerbeds and borders are the areas left over. “The shape of a flower bed doesn’t matter,” adds Elaine. “Once it is planted up, it is no longer possible to see what that shape is.”

It’s tempting to be seduced by the latest garden trends such as Mediterranean-style planting and even natural swimming ponds, but whilst keeping up to date, professional garden designers stick to the simple basics of garden design they always follow.

 These are easy to understand if you’re a garden design beginner. Starting with the lawns, patios, and paths is the professional rule.

 “When professionals design a garden, they will first design the open spaces – the voids, as we call them,” says Elaine. “When people look at a garden, the eye can only read the shapes of open spaces, for example, lawns, terraces, driveways, ponds, and paths.” If you’re looking for garden design advice for beginners, follow this step first.

Flowerbeds and borders are the areas left over. “The shape of a flower bed doesn’t matter,” adds Elaine. “Once it is planted up, it is no longer possible to see what that shape is.”

Another secret to great garden design is to ignore boundaries. So don’t design from the outside in, start with the open spaces and work your way out. Any fences or walls can become part of a garden design for beginners scheme. These may be planted with easy-to-maintain climbers such as ivy for year-round coverage, winter-flowering jasmine, clematis, or honeysuckle.

Keep different elements of a garden in proportion to each other. For example, narrow flower beds around a wide lawn will look out of proportion, as will a narrow path leading from very wide steps. Too much paving will make a backyard look bleak and uninviting, and is not the most sustainable choice for a large area.

Having designed all the open spaces - lawns, terraces, ponds, paths - what remains becomes flower beds and borders.

But remember a garden is a multi-dimensional space, so don’t forget height. Bringing in trees enhances garden design for beginners by adding vertical interest, effectively creating ‘layers of height’, says Karen: “There are many tree forms that tick many boxes. Multi-stems add an architectural and structural feature. Use pleached trees for clever screening, roof-top trees for canopies to create shade.”

 Trees are also a good all-year-round feature, as interesting bark, such as that of the Silver Birch, provides the color. At night, careful outdoor lighting positioned in trees makes a garden feel cozy and intimate.

How do you plan a garden bed layout?

“When planning a new bed or border, try to make it as large as you are able, to create space for plants to grow into,” is Elaine’s first piece of advice on this aspect of garden design for beginners. 

A traditional bed typically has a specimen plant, such as a grand fern or tall canna lilies at the center, with other plants of varying heights arranged around.

A traditional mixed border creates layers of planting by height, with the tallest plants at the back, working forwards through a mid-layer, to low planting at the front of the border.

Tall structural plants are important in any bed or border because they create the ‘bones’ of the design, which are then enlivened with pops of seasonal color.

Elaine says a more recent trend in planting is to create a naturalistic ‘tile’ – a template with set dimensions, depending on your area’s size. The tile is then repeated across the bed or along the length of the border to create maximum impact.

When it comes to garden design for beginners, this method is helpful because the area to be designed is smaller than a whole bed or border, and is simply repeated.

Elaine’s advice is to choose a selection of perennial plants, perhaps about seven or eight separate varieties, which will thrive in the chosen area.

“The range of plants, which you can dot and weave across the ‘tile’, should vary in height and width,” says Elaine. “By looking at shape, texture and colour, select plants which create attractive combinations and provide a long flowering period between them. 

There are some plants, such as tall ornamental grasses – like those belonging to the Miscanthus Sinesis family - a plant every garden needs because they provide year-round interest, shape and colour.

But it’s very easy to get carried away when planning a bed or border and end up with too many different and jarring plants crowding out a confined space. Always read the label advice on position, size and spread carefully before adding a plant to your garden design. Keep experiments and mad whims at the garden centre confined to containers until you know how they behave.

“My own garden design tutor used to always say, as a rule of thumb, when planning a bed or border, take out half of the types of plants you’re considering, then double up on the number you’ve got,” says Juliet. “That’s how you get good impact.”