Shade garden design, from a photo of your own garden.
Shade garden design turns the spot most people give up on into the calmest, greenest part of the garden. Upload a photo of your shady border, choose the look, and see it redesigned with lush, shade-loving planting – then get a real planting plan to build it.
First design free · no card needed · UK plants
What makes a good shade garden
Shade is not a problem to solve but an opportunity to plant differently. A shady border cannot rely on a blaze of flower, so it leans instead on the thing that lasts longest and looks good for months: foliage. Bold leaves against fine ones, glossy against matt, layered into a cool, green tapestry with flowers as a lovely bonus.
Garden Design App reads a photo of your real shady spot and redesigns the planting to suit it, keeping your trees, fences and paths where they are. It works out whether your shade is dry, damp or deep and chooses plants that will genuinely thrive – so you get a lush border, not a struggling one.
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.
Ferns
the backbone of a shade garden – all texture, no need for sun
Hostas
big, bold leaves that thrive in cool shade
Hellebores
evergreen leaves and welcome winter-into-spring flower
Hardy geraniums
long-flowering ground cover for a shady border
Japanese anemones
elegant late flowers that light up shade
Foxgloves
woodland spires that seed happily in dappled shade
Astilbe
feathery plumes for a moist, shady spot
Elephant's ears
glossy evergreen leaves to anchor the edges
Lungwort
early flowers and silver-spotted leaves
Epimedium
dainty spring flowers and tough evergreen ground cover
Sweet box
a shade-happy evergreen with scented winter flower
Solomon's seal
arching stems and dangling white bells
Shade-loving plants that actually thrive
The palette is drawn from woodland-edge plants that evolved for low light: ferns and hostas for foliage, hellebores and epimediums for evergreen structure and early flower, and hardy geraniums, foxgloves and Japanese anemones to bring colour to the gloom. The planting plan names the full list, with how many to buy and where each 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 even a shady corner has interest through the year.
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.
Good to know.
Everything people ask about shade 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.
Other garden styles.
Your shade garden is one photo away.
See it redesigned in about two minutes. The first one's on us.