Sun · naturalistic drifts

Prairie garden design, from a photo of your garden.

Prairie garden design from your own photo – naturalistic drifts of ornamental grasses and long-flowering perennials in the Piet Oudolf spirit, with a real planting plan to build it.

First design free · no card needed · UK plants
A garden designed in the prairie garden design style
Built by professional gardenersReal UK plants & planting plans Photorealistic in about two minutes
Prairie garden design

Naturalistic prairie garden design

Prairie garden design – the naturalistic style made famous by Piet Oudolf – weaves ornamental grasses and long-flowering perennials into loose, repeating drifts. It peaks gloriously in late summer and autumn, then holds its beauty into winter as frost catches the seed heads and stems. It is relaxed, wildlife-rich and endlessly atmospheric.

Garden Design App reads a photo of your real garden and redesigns the planting into this drifting prairie style, keeping your paths, boundaries and existing trees where they are – so you get a naturalistic scheme built for your actual space.

Signature planting

The plants that make the look.

The planting plan lists them in full, with how many to buy and where each goes – so the garden in the picture is one you can actually plant.

Ornamental grasses

the backbone of prairie planting – waves of movement

Echinacea

coneflowers that drift through the grasses

Rudbeckia

golden daisies for a long late-summer glow

Salvias

upright spires repeated through the scheme

Verbena bonariensis

tall, see-through purple that ties it together

Sedum

flat heads that hold structure into winter

Achillea

flat plates of warm colour loved by pollinators

Eryngium / sea holly

steely blue seed heads for contrast

Perovskia

airy blue and silver among the grasses

Helenium

hot russet and gold for the late-season peak

Molinia

a see-through grass that catches low autumn light

Aster

a haze of late flower to close the season

Grasses and perennials in drifts

The magic is in the mix: grasses for movement and structure, and a repeated cast of tough, long-flowering perennials threaded through them so the border reads as one flowing sweep rather than separate clumps. Seed heads are left standing for winter interest. The planting plan names the full list, with how many to buy 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 prairie builds to its late-season peak and carries interest right through winter.

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.

Questions

Good to know.

Everything people ask about prairie 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 many to buy, 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 quantities, 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 the first design really free, and what does it cost after?

Your first design is genuinely free, with no card required. After that, subscriptions start at £19 a month. The professional planting plan is a separate one-off you only buy if you want to make a design real.

Your prairie garden is one photo away.

See it redesigned in about two minutes. The first one's on us.

Design my garden – free