A lawn border, redesigned whole
Before: a bare soil border along a lawn under large shrubs
Get this garden →First 3 designs free · No card
A garden border planner that plants it for you
Plan a border from one photo: pick a style and see your own border planted and full of colour in about a minute. Or start from any garden on this page.
UK, US or anywhere else: plants picked to thrive where you live, in your light and soil.
Design my gardenOver 500 garden designs made.
16 garden borders, planned from a photo
Every one is a real garden, redesigned from one photo with the app, and each says what was there before. Tap Before to see the photo. Like one? Tap Get this garden to plan your own border in the same style, with the same plants.
Garden border ideas from real gardens
Cottage borders along a lawn, deep borders either side of a path, a formal border under clipped bays: garden border ideas, each planned from one photo. 8 gardens
Cottage border along a lawn, lilac behind
Before: overgrown shrubs and a tree beside a rough lawn
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A lawn turned into a gravel path between deep borders of foxgloves and lavender
Before: a long lawn between shrubs leading to a shed at the back
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A narrow lawn with a new border of catmint, salvias and yellow daisies
Before: a narrow lawn between fences, seen from a timber deck
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Long grass between overgrown borders turned into a mown lawn with deep flower borders
Before: long grass between overgrown borders with a bistro set
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A neat lawn edged with a stone lined border of geraniums and lupins
Before: a rough, patchy lawn between hedges with a gate at the back
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Gravel path between tall cottage borders
Before: a paved patio corner with shrubs, pots and lawn beyond
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A pair of standard bays behind a border of salvias and roses
Before: a mixed flower bed against a tall hedge with a gravel edge
Get this garden →Herbaceous, perennial and mixed borders
Perennials for colour from spring to autumn, shrubs and grasses for structure, a shady border of hostas and ferns: each layered from back to front. 8 gardens
A fence border beside a lawn, replanted with clematis, foxgloves and roses
Before: a lawn with a border of orange flowers along a dark fence
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A lawn by the house edged with deep borders of lavender and summer flowers
Before: a plain lawn beside a house and shed with trees behind
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Stone path between cottage borders to a shed
Before: cracked weedy paving with a small table and a chair
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A stone path off the lawn into a shady border of hostas, hydrangeas and foxgloves
Before: a dry, patchy lawn ringed by trees with a washing line
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A curving lawn with a border of foxgloves, ferns and hostas along a wall
Before: a sloping lawn with a path to a green gate and potted flowers
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Orange and blue border round a lawn
Before: a patchy dry lawn with a wooden fence and paved corner
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A lush lawn with a new border of euphorbias, grasses and silver leaves
Before: a patchy lawn with shrubs, trees and a summer house beyond
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Weedy strip along a driveway turned into a long border
Before: a thin, weedy strip of plants along a fence beside a drive
Get this garden →How to design a garden border from a photo
Most garden border planners have you draw the border and drag plants in one at a time. This one starts with a photo of your border, so you don't need to know the name of a single plant.
Photograph your border
One photo from your phone is all it takes. Mark the border and pop in its length and depth, so the planting fits.
Choose the look
Pick one of 15 styles and a colour scheme, then ask for anything you want, like "add a wildlife pond". Or tap Get this garden on any garden on this page.
See your border planned
Your real border, planted and full of colour, in about a minute.
What you get for free
- First 3 designs freeSee your own border planned with no card and no catch.
- Your border, plantedA photorealistic picture of your own border, freshly designed.
- A layered schemeHeight at the back, a full middle, softness spilling at the front.
- Colour all seasonPlanting chosen for spring, summer and autumn interest.
Try the garden border planner free
The design is free to see. When you find a border you love, unlock its full planting plan: every plant named, how big each grows, where it goes and a month-by-month flowering calendar.
Your first 3 designs are free.
Watermarked and lower quality. No card needed.
| One payment, no subscription. | ||
| What you get | ||
| Designs | 20 | 50 |
| Days to use them | 14 | 30 |
| Free designs on top | 5 | 10 |
| Designs at once, side by side | 2 | 4 |
| With every design | ||
| Every plant named, ready to buy | ||
| The materials, gravel to fence, with whole garden designs | ||
| Care guide and flowering calendar | ||
| Higher quality images | ||
| No watermark | ||
| Change any design in your own words | ||
With the Pro and Max plans
Every plant named, ready to buy
The pot size to buy and how tall each grows. Measured borders also say how many to buy.
From a whole garden plan
| Plant | Pot | Height |
|---|---|---|
| Catmint 'Walker's Low'Nepeta × faassenii | 1 to 2 L | 10 to 50 cm |
| Avens 'Totally Tangerine'Geum | 2 L | 50 cm to 1 m |
| Giant montbretiaCrocosmia masoniorum | 2 L | 1 to 1.5 m |
| Tellmann's honeysuckleLonicera × tellmanniana | 3 to 5 L | 2.5 to 4 m |
A care guide for every plant
Where it grows best, how to prune it and how it gets through winter.
From a care guide
Avens ‘Totally Tangerine’
- Grows best in
- Fertile soil that drains well, in full sun
- Pruning
- Deadhead to promote more blooms, and cut back old stems after flowering
- Hardiness
- Very hardy: tolerates the coldest UK winters
- Habit
- Dies back in winter and returns in spring
Catmint ‘Walker’s Low’
- Pruning
- Trim after flowering to keep plants compact and to encourage a second flowering
A flowering calendar
Every plant, the months it flowers, in its own colour.
From a flowering calendar
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Avens 'Totally Tangerine'
Catmint 'Walker's Low'
Clematis 'The President'
Lady's mantle
Clean pictures, no watermark
Higher quality images of your design, yours to keep.
gardendesignapp.aiChange any design in your own words
Say what you want different, and see it redrawn.
ExampleMake the path wider and add a bench.
The materials, gravel to fence
On whole garden designs: the paving, gravel, edging and fence in the picture.
Example
Golden gravelSandstone pavingOak sleepersFeather edge fence
Plants that thrive where you live
In the UK, the US or anywhere else, we take your location and only give you plants that will thrive in your conditions.
Your locationYour lightYour soilPlants that thrive there
Why not a garden designer?
Save over £1,900. The average UK garden design costs £1,950.
A designer can visit, measure and oversee the build. When you want that, bring the look you found here.
Border design you can see first
How it plans a border, the kinds of border it plans, and how to design one well.
Plan a border that actually works
A good border is harder than it looks: get the heights or the balance wrong and it reads as a muddle. This garden border planner does the composition for you. You upload a photo, pick a style, and it lays out a proper border design: taller plants graded to the back, a generous middle of colour, and softer planting breaking over the front edge. Whether you want a classic herbaceous border, a mixed border of shrubs and perennials, or a long perennial run, the planting is arranged the way a designer would build it, on your own border.
Border ideas you can see on your own garden
The best border ideas are the ones you can picture in your own space. These are built from real garden plants, chosen for your light, soil and climate, so you get inspiration you could genuinely recreate, not a made-up image. The scheme is worked out to the length and depth of your border, so it fills beautifully without crowding.
How to design a garden border
Here is how to design a border by hand, and how the planner does it for you. Designing a perennial border or a mixed one by hand starts with the border layout: the tallest plants at the back, a generous middle, low plants at the front edge, repeated in groups along its length so it hangs together, with something flowering at every point of the year. With the garden border planner you photograph the border, add its length and depth, and pick a style, and it does that composition for you, sized to the border you have.
Garden border ideas, not edging
Search for garden border ideas and much of what comes up is edging: bricks, timber and metal strips along the lawn. This is about what grows in the border. These are border planting ideas drawn into a photo of your own garden, from flower border ideas full of colour to calm green borders of ferns and grasses.
Small and narrow borders
A small or narrow border needs fewer, better plants: one or two taller shapes, a run of something long-flowering, and plants that stay in their space. These small garden border ideas are sized to your border, so a narrow strip by a fence reads full without looking crammed.
More ways to design your garden
Just starting out? The free garden planner plans your garden from one photo, and your first 3 designs are free.
Ready to start? Design my garden shows how one photo becomes a new garden in about a minute.
Prefer a designer's eye? Online garden design redesigns your garden from a photo, with no wait and no bill.
On your phone? The garden planner app works in your browser, with nothing to download.
Comparing tools? See what the garden design tool does that a drawing tool does not.
Looking at garden border design software? Here is how the app compares with the garden design software you draw in yourself.
Garden styles to design with
Garden border questions
How do I design a beautiful garden border?
Start with the shape and the light, then plant in layers: tall at the back, a full middle, low at the front, repeated along the border, with flowers spread across spring, summer and autumn. Or photograph your border with the garden border planner, pick a style, and see it designed in about a minute: your first 3 designs are free.
How does the AI garden design work?
Upload a photo of your garden or a single border, and tell us what you'd like: refresh your borders, keeping your garden's shape, or redesign the whole space with new layout, paths and planting. Pick a style, and we generate a photorealistic redesign of your actual garden. When you love one, unlock its planting plan: every plant, how big each grows, and where each goes.
Are the plants real? Can I actually buy and plant them?
Yes. Every design can become a planting plan of real plants you can buy, chosen for where you live, with each plant's mature height and spread, where it goes and a month-by-month flowering guide. The plans are built on real horticultural data and shaped by a professional gardener, not generic AI guesses, so the garden in the picture is a garden you can genuinely plant.
Do I need a special photo or camera?
No, a normal phone photo is perfect. Photograph your whole garden if it's small and simple, or one border at a time for larger or more complex gardens, where each bed has its own light and soil.
Is it really free, and what does it cost after?
Yes, your first 3 garden designs are free, straight away. Free designs carry a small watermark. Pro is £29 and Max £49, each one payment that covers your whole project, and every design you make with either comes with every plant named, plus a clean, higher quality image that is yours to keep. Pro makes two designs at once, Max four.
What kinds of border can it plan?
Beautiful borders of all kinds, classic herbaceous, mixed shrub-and-perennial, or a long perennial run, in whatever style you choose, all built from real garden plants.
Where do I buy the plants?
Wherever suits you. The planting plan names real, widely available garden plants, so you can take it to any good garden centre or order them online, all at once or a bit at a time.
See your border planned from one photo.
Add one photo of your border and see it planned in about a minute. Your first 3 designs are free, with no card.
Design my garden