Free Landscape Garden Planner

Worked Example: A 96m² Garden

A 12m × 8m garden covers 96m². Allocating 20% to patio gives 19.2m², 40% to lawn gives 38.4m² and 30% to planting gives 28.8m².

The remaining 10%, or 9.6m², stays flexible. Lawn plus beds create 67.2m² of soft landscape.

Start from Measurements

The repository-held RHS garden-plan guidance starts with measuring and drawing the site. This tool uses 2 dimensions for a rectangle.

An L-shaped 12m × 8m site should be split into smaller rectangles rather than treated automatically as 96m².

Keep a Flexible Allowance

Allocating 100% leaves 0m² for a path, bin store, water butt, shed access or measurement corrections. The 5–20% Balanced draft band is a CoryVu convention, not a design rule.

A 10% allowance in a 96m² garden is 9.6m²; its suitability depends on the actual layout and access needs.

Translate Percentages Back to Dimensions

Percentages are easier to compare, but construction happens in metres. On a 12m × 8m rectangle, a full-width 20% strip would be 2.4m deep because 20% of 12m is 2.4m. A different shape can occupy the same 19.2m², so test the intended furniture, mower route and door clearances on a measured sketch.

Read Areas Before Buying Materials

The RHS turf guidance supports measuring a lawn before ordering. This planner's 38.4m² lawn output is a design area, not an order quantity.

Turf and paving purchases need product dimensions, cuts and wastage. Use the related turf calculator after fixing the shape.

Use Scenarios as Trade-offs

More planting moves up to 10 percentage points from lawn to beds; on 96m² that is up to 9.6m². More patio makes the same transfer to hard surface.

Less lawn halves the entered lawn share and assigns the released portion to beds, while preserving the entered flexible percentage.

Why the Strip Is Not a Finished Design

A 30% planting segment shows 28.8m² in the worked example, but not whether that space is one 2.4m × 12m border, several islands or raised beds.

The same area can create different edge lengths, access and maintenance. Test priorities here, then draw actual shapes around fixed features.

Check Hard-Surface Rules Before Fixing the Patio Share

The percentage input does not decide whether paving is permissible. In England, GOV.UK's front-garden surfacing guidance says a new or replacement impermeable surface over 5m² at the front of a house needs permission unless it uses permeable materials or directs runoff to a permeable area.

A 20% patio in the 96m² worked example is 19.2m², but the rule depends on location, permeability and drainage—not this percentage alone.

Turn the Schedule into a Real Drawing

First measure the boundary and fixed items such as doors, mature trees, drains and sheds. Second, test whether patio, lawn and beds fit the 100% area budget.

Third, draw actual shapes and widths: a 1m-wide route uses 8m² over an 8m run, while a 0.8m route uses 6.4m². Last, recalculate material quantities from those shapes rather than ordering from the concept strip.

Recheck Every Transfer

Moving 10 percentage points in a 50m² garden reallocates 5m²; in a 200m² garden the same change reallocates 20m².

The scenarios preserve percentages, not walking distance or edge length. Check access and maintenance after every transfer, especially when flexible space falls below the 5% warning line.

Sources

• RHS — Creating your garden plan (repository evidence captured 2026-09-29)
• RHS — Lawns from turf (repository evidence checked 2026-08-03)
• GOV.UK — Permeable surfacing of front gardens (England context; repository evidence checked 2026-09-17)