Design your yard with a photo, your zone, and the sun

What you'll need

• A photo of the yard, with faces and house numbers cropped out if you can
• Your climate zone, from a real lookup, and whether the spot is full sun, part sun, or shade
• How much time you will spend watering. Be honest

A room indoors is Redesign a room. This page is only the outside.

Step 1: Make it describe the yard before it redesigns it

Help me plan this yard. Photo attached. If you cannot see it, ask me to describe the beds, the lawn, and where the sun comes from. Do not invent a fence or a slope.

Zone I looked up: [paste]
Light: [full sun, part sun, or shade]
I will water: [how often]
I will not: [remove a tree, pour concrete, spend more than your number, if you have one]
Pets or kids: [yes or no]

Describe what you see. Then ask me 3 questions about soil, water pooling, and what I want to keep.
Do not name plants yet.

Answer the questions. If you do not know the soil, say so. The plan should not pretend you have rich soil.

Step 2: Ask for plants, a sketch, and a year of chores

Using only the zone, light, and limits I gave you, make a planting plan.

Give me:
1. Up to 8 plants that are commonly grown in this zone and light. Say you are not sure if one is a guess.
2. Where each one goes, in plain places (along the fence, in the pot by the door).
3. A seasonal list: what to do in spring, summer, fall, and winter, in short chores.
4. What not to plant because of pets, kids, or the shade I described.

If you can make an image, make one sketch that keeps the house and trees where they are. Label it as a sketch.
Do not invent a price. I will price plants at the store.

Step 3: Check the plants before you buy

Take the list to the garden center or an extension site and match the tags to your zone and light. Cross out anything the staff or the tag disagrees with.

I checked the list. These plants are available and match the tag: [paste].
These were wrong: [paste].
Rebuild the plan with only the plants that checked out.
Keep the seasonal chores. Do not add new plants I have not confirmed.

Step 4: Plant one bed

Do the smallest bed first. A full-yard weekend is how plants die in the car. If water pools or a tree is involved, stop and ask a pro before you dig. The chat cannot see drainage from a snapshot.

Common mistakes

• Letting the chat assign your zone from the city name alone. Look it up.
• Buying eight plants the same day because the sketch looked finished.
• Ignoring "toxic to pets" and hoping the label was cautious.
• Planning a patio, a wall, or electrical lighting from a chat. That is construction, not a planting list.

Privacy: what not to paste

Crop out faces, car plates, and house numbers. A yard photo plus a ZIP code is more location detail than you need. You can name the zone without pasting the address. Do not upload a picture of a neighbor's yard as if it were yours.

Director check: look before you use it

• Did you look up the zone yourself? If the chat supplied it, check it before you buy.
• Does each plant's tag match your light? The tag wins.
• Is the seasonal list short enough that you will do it? Cut chores until it is.
• Are you about to dig near a tree, a line, or a fence you do not own? Stop and ask a professional.

One extra tip

If the same chat can take a photo, take one in a month and ask only: "Which of these plants looks stressed, and what should I check?" You still decide whether to water, move, or replace it. More home projects are on the Life hub.