How to Draw Landscape 

Plans
You say that you’d like to learn how to draw landscape plans, but you’re downright intimidated by
the scope of such a task? Okay, I won’t lie to you: drawing professional-quality landscape plans is a
big deal. After all, it is not for nothing that aspiring designers go to school to learn how to draw
landscape plans.

But one question you need to ask yourself right away is this: Does the particular project that you’re
considering demand detailed, perhaps even professional-quality landscape plans? If you are merely
establishing a new planting bed – say a mixed border planting that will act as a privacy screen –
then you probably don’t need a detailed landscape plan. A simpler drawing will be suitable for your
needs, similar to my drought-tolerant landscape plan. Such simple drawings can be upgraded with
the addition of accurate measurements, so you’ll be able to get your plant spacing requirements
right.

So when do you truly need complete, detailed landscape plans? I would encourage people moving
into new homes, where the landscaping is virtually non-existent, to have such landscape plans with
which to work. Likewise, homeowners engaging in makeovers of existing landscapes that they
consider obsolete will profit from the guidance offered by detailed landscape plans. In these cases,
even if you have to pay a pro to come in and draw the landscape plan for you, it will be worth it.
Such undertakings are just too complex to be left to guesswork. Detailed landscape plans provide a
bird’s-eye view of your property and allow you to determine whether one projected component will
mesh with another.

A landscape plan is not born; rather, it evolves. You put measurements, rough sketches and notes
on paper, then tinker with that data until you arrive at the final plan (my article assumes that you’ve
already thought about what improvements you’d like to make to your yard, which includes solving
problems such as poor drainage). The process can be described in terms of three phases, each of
which results in a type of drawing, as I relate in the remainder of this article, beginning on Page 2....

Did you take geometry in high school? Remember how obsessed that subject was with measuring
spaces? Well, you’ll need a similar obsession to create a scale diagram, which is Phase 1 of drawing
landscape design plans. For, as I mentioned on Page 1, drawing landscape design plans begins with
measuring.

Just how obsessed you’re willing to become, just how methodically you’re willing to take
measurements, will determine the degree of detail your landscape design plan acquires. There’s also
the matter of how fancy you wish to get with the look of the drawing itself. If you truly strive for
something approaching a professional-looking landscape design plan, you’ll need some drafting
supplies, such as a drawing compass and drafting paper. A good source for the techniques involved
in producing such a fancy drawing is Black and Decker’s “The Complete Guide to Creative
Landscapes" (see sidebar, "Related Resources on How to Draw Landscape Plans"). My article will
focus on creating a plainer drawing, more in line with the do-it-yourselfer’s aims.

Phase 1: Scale Drawings

When you bought your property, you should have received a deed map (there are regional
variations on the name of this document). If not, obtain a copy at your county’s records office. A
deed map indicates the measurements of your property, where your house rests in relation to the
property’s borders and, if you’re lucky, the location of underground utilities. If the location of
underground utilities is not supplied by the deed map, you’ll have to contact your local utility
companies. If you do have a deed map or similar aid, it will help you in this project. You’ll still
have to do some measuring and some drawing. But the deed map will provide you with the proper
orientation, steering you in the right direction. For instance, you’ll see which (if any) corners of
your land form a right angle – useful knowledge for your calculations, as we’ll see below.

Two of the supplies you need for Phase 1 are a 100-foot steel tape measure and several sheets of
graph paper. For Phases 2 and 3 you’ll need tracing paper, carbon paper, blank sheets of paper and
colored pencils, so you might as well pick up those supplies now, when you buy the graph paper. I
also suggest having stakes and string on hand for Phase 2. The horizontal and vertical lines on
graph paper are all spaced equally apart, dividing the sheet up as precisely as a checkerboard. This
precision comes in very handy for scale drawings. Why? Because it allows you to say exactly
where any point on the sheet is, in relation to any other point. Now, think about it: that’s exactly
how you want to be able to represent your yard (remember what I said about “geometry” above).
That is, in order to plan a landscape effectively, you want to know exactly where any point in your
yard is, in relation to any other. That way, for instance, if you plan on fitting a new patio in between
your house and the new driveway you’ll be installing, you’ll know exactly how much room to allot
for the patio.

“But,” you may object at this juncture, “What does the graph paper have to do with making an
accurate representation of my yard? The one is so small, the other so large.” Yes, but this is where
the concept of "scale" comes into play. You can decide that one of those little squares on the graph
paper will represent, let’s say, 1 square foot of space on your property, thus creating a scale
drawing. Get it? You’ll do the physical measuring on your property first with your tape measure,
then scale those dimensions down so that they’ll fit on the graph paper. The size of the squares
available to you on graph paper varies, so you can choose the size that suits you best. A scale of 1/8
inch = 1 foot is commonly used to draw landscape design plans; for this scale, use the kind of graph
paper with the grids laid out in eighth-inch scale. At this scale, you can represent a property as large
as 60 feet by 80 feet on an 8 ½ x 11 sheet. For large properties, you may have to tape sheets of
graph paper together, creating more squares with which to work.

This link takes you to an example showing what scale drawings look like.

Once you’re squared away on how you’re going to transpose your measurements onto the graph
paper, it’s time to go out and get those measurements! I'll show you how on Page 3....

Using the tape measure, determine the length of each of your four property boundaries, then
measure the length and width of your house. It’s important to establish precisely where your house
sits in relation to your property’s boundaries. This is where those boundary corners that form right
angles will come in handy. Let’s say there’s such a corner at the southwestern extreme of your land.
Go to the corner of your house nearest to this corner boundary. Run the tape measure from the
corner of the house to western boundary line and record the measurement. Now run the tape
measure from the same house corner to the southern boundary line, recording that measurement. If
you’ve been careful to keep the tape measure straight, you’ve just defined a perfectly rectangular
area. Repeat the process for the other three corners, even where no right angle exists.

Once you’ve established the boundary lines and where the house sits in relation to them, you’re
ready to determine the exact locations of other elements on your land (e.g., patios, driveways,
gardens and plants that you’ll be keeping, as well as utilities), and indicate their positions, in scale,
on the graph paper. Their positions are measured in relation to the points that you’ve already
established (i.e., boundaries and house, so far). Get at least two points of reference for each element
that you’re measuring. The further you proceed in this project, the easier it gets, because you
acquire more and more fixed points to use as points of reference.

“But how the heck do I measure things that curve, like curved planting beds?” you ask. Well, to
measure a curved area, you need a straight line as a point of reference. Again, build on the
calculations you’ve already made in this project. For instance, use the side of the house facing the
curved planting bed as a point of reference. If the planting bed is located at a great distance – say,
about 100 feet -- from the house, you can make your task easier as follows:

Measure out 99 feet from one corner of the house on that side, and drive a stake into the ground at
that point; then do the same from the other corner. Run a string between the two stakes. Now you
have a straight line to use as a point of reference, and it’s located just off the near edge of the
curved planting bed. Beginning at one end of the bed, on the side nearest the string, run the tape
measure from the string to the outer edge of the bed. Move down 3 feet and measure again. Repeat
every 3 feet, until you reach the other end of the bed, jotting down all your measurements. Repeat
the process to measure the far side of the bed. When you’re done, you record all the points you just
measured on the graph paper, maintaining the same scale we discussed earlier. It will look like a
series of dots. You then simply connect the dots. The result is an accurate measurement, in scale,
of the curved planting bed.

When you feel that you’re done with Phase 1, make copies of your drawing. We're ready to move
on to the next phase, on Page 4....

emember the tracing paper you bought when you picked up supplies, as discussed on Page 2? It’s
here, in Phase 2 of drawing landscape design plans, that you’ll begin to put it to use. Phase 2 entails
the drawing of an intermediate landscape design plan, called the “bubble diagram.”
Phase 2: The Bubble Diagram

First, place a sheet of tracing paper over the completed scale diagram. Because the tracing paper
allows you to see through down to the scale diagram, you can simply copy its contents, without the
grid lines of the graph paper, onto the tracing paper. It’s enough that you can still see the grid lines
underneath; they’ll guide your drawing in Phase 2.

So you have a copy of the scale diagram, traced onto the tracing paper. No big deal so far, right?
But this copy is only the beginning. Now it’s time to make use of the “free spaces” in your yard, as
indicated by your earlier measurements and drawing. For instance, if you have an area in between
the house and the shed that’s not occupied by another element that will be in the final landscape
design plan, this is the time to indicate the desired use for this space.

Delimit the space on the tracing paper by drawing a circular or oblong shape (the straight edges of
squares and rectangles are generally avoided in landscape design, unless your goal is a formal
landscape design). Thus the name of the drawing of Phase 2: by the time you’re done, it looks like
you have a bunch of bubbles on the tracing paper. Label the shape you just drew as whatever you
wish it to be (lawn area, ground cover, patio, water feature, planting bed, etc.), according to its
function in your landscape design plan (work area, play area, garden, etc.) Then move on to another
free space and do the same. Areas in between the “bubbles” will generally be driveways, paths, or
small lawn areas essentially serving as paths – i.e., your means of navigation between the bubbles.
Label them as such.

This link takes you to an example showing what bubble diagrams look like.

Don’t expect to complete the finalized version of the bubble diagram immediately. You’ll find
yourself rejecting some of the bubbles as you go along, for whatever reason (e.g., insufficient
space). No problem. Just get another piece of tracing paper and revise your initial drawing.

Before settling on a final bubble diagram, concretize the project in any way you can, to see what
will work and what won’t. Here’s where stakes and string may come in handy again. Pound stakes
into the ground around one of the spaces you’ve tentatively defined in the bubble diagram. Tie
string to these stakes. Repeat the process for the other “bubble” spaces. Now walk in between these
spaces, noting the flow of traffic patterns. Does your layout of the spaces still make sense? Have
you used the spaces as effectively as possible? Do you find one of the paths meandering too much,
when it should instead be making a beeline from point A to point B?

When you change your mind on any of the spaces, adjust the stakes and string accordingly. When
you’ve finished, take final measurements for these spaces. You’re now ready to go back to the scale
diagram and incorporate these final measurements, thus transforming the scale diagram into the
final landscape design plan, as we'll see on

Remember that, on Page 3 I had you make copies of the scale diagram? That’s because we’ll be
tinkering with it now, to produce the finalized version of the home landscape plan. And if you mess
something up on it, you don’t want to start all over again, do you?

Phase 3: The Final Home Landscape Plan

On one of your copies of the scale diagram, transpose the final measurements you arrived at for
your “bubble” areas in Phase 2. Now it’s time for fitting plants into your scale diagram. You don’t
have to name each type of tree, each type of flower, etc. Much more important is a continued
adherence to scale, so that, for instance, the shape you draw to indicate a large tree will obviously
be bigger than that for a small shrub. Indicate the size that a plant will reach at maturity, not its
baby size. This will allow for adequate plant spacing.

Landscape designers find it handy to designate the elements of a home landscape plan with letters
and/or symbols, to save on space. Thus a pool can be designated with a “P,” a tree with a large,
round shape, and so forth. On the side of your scale diagram, include a legend that translates these
shortcuts, in case you forget what they stand for.

You should also keep a separate notebook to jot down notes specifically having to do with your
planting plan. Take note of shady areas, dry areas, wet areas, soil types, etc. All of these factors will
be given precedence over merely aesthetic factors when it comes time to go out and buy the plants
themselves. You’ll be fitting the plants to the plan, not the other way around.
Once you’ve got everything right, take a blank sheet of paper, place carbon paper over it, and place
the updated scale diagram on top of that. Now trace over everything on the updated scale diagram,
allowing the carbon paper to transfer your sketch onto the once blank sheet of paper – which is now
being transformed into your final home landscape plan. In creating your final plan in this manner,
you’ve simply rid yourself of the grid lines of the graph paper. This will allow your final home
landscape plan to look prettier, as you can now begin to use your colored pencils. Hey, have a little
fun: you’ve worked hard to get to this point, so you deserve it!

With your colored pencils, you can now fill in your spaces with the appropriate colors. For instance,
grass can be a light green, trees and shrubs a dark green, water blue, etc. The application of color to
the final home landscape plan will render it much easier on the eyes. But don’t toss the updated
scale diagram into the rubbish! You’ll still want to consult it for precise measurements. Those grid
lines may be ugly, but they’re the only thing standing between you and utter chaos!

This link takes you to an example showing what finalized home landscape plans look like.

Does drawing a home landscape plan by hand not seem like your cup of tea? Then consider letting
a computer program do it for you. For more information on landscaping software, please read my
review of Realtime Landscaping Pro Landscape Design Software.