Gravel garden design, built around your space.
Gravel garden design from your own photo: low-water, self-seeding gravel garden plants in the Beth Chatto spirit, with a real planting plan of what to buy and where it goes.
First design free · no card needed · UK plants
A relaxed, low-water gravel garden
Gravel garden design, made famous by Beth Chatto, is the answer to a hot, free-draining spot: plants set straight into a deep gravel mulch, watered in once and then largely left to their own devices. It self-seeds and knits together into a loose, naturalistic tapestry that needs very little from you.
Garden Design App reads a photo of your real garden and redesigns the planting into this relaxed gravel style, keeping your paths, boundaries and existing trees where they are – so you get a scheme that suits your actual space and soil.
The plants that make the look.
The planting plan lists them in full, with how big each grows and where each goes – so the garden in the picture is one you can actually plant.
Verbena bonariensis
tall, self-seeding purple that threads through gravel
Ornamental grasses
airy movement and golden autumn colour
Sedum
fleshy late-summer flowers that need no watering
Euphorbia
architectural evergreen for the dry, sunny edge
Alliums
drumstick heads that pop up through the planting
Eryngium / sea holly
steely-blue thistle heads that love poor soil
Lavender
scented, silver and perfectly at home in gravel
Salvias
long-flowering spires in the drought-tough palette
Stipa
feathery grasses that catch the light and self-sow
Gaura
delicate butterfly flowers on wiry, drought-proof stems
Nepeta / catmint
soft blue haze that spills over the stones
Achillea
flat plates of colour that bees and hoverflies adore
Self-seeding plants that thrive on neglect
The look comes from drought-tolerant, self-seeding plants – airy grasses, steely thistles, aromatic shrubs and see-through perennials – that seed around gently and cope with dry summers without a hose. The planting plan names the full list, with how big each grows and where each one goes.
From idea to a plan you can plant
When you find a design you love, unlock its professional planting plan: every plant named, how many of each, exactly where it goes, and a month-by-month flowering calendar so the gravel garden has interest from spring to autumn.
Professional garden designers often charge over £1,000 for this. Your first design is free, so you can see your own garden reimagined before you spend anything.
Where to go next
Gravel gardens are hot, sharply drained and unforgiving, which is exactly what sun-loving border plants want. Plant the wrong thing and it sulks all summer.
Free-draining gravel usually sits over chalky or alkaline soil, so it pays to choose plants that suit it rather than fight it.
The look carries best with hot, sun-bleached colour rather than anything too delicate.
Good to know.
Everything people ask about gravel garden design.
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, available UK plants, 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, you get 3 free designs every day, straight away. Free designs carry a small watermark. If you want more designs, higher quality and clean images that are yours to keep, a one-off Fresh Look starts at £19 and covers your whole project. The £9 Design Pack is a separate one-off that gives any single design its clean image and full plant list, only if you want to make it real.
Other garden styles.
More on gravel garden.
Your gravel garden is one photo away.
See it redesigned in about two minutes. The first one's on us.