Plants & gardening21 categories
Plan the layout of a bed or balcony
An empty space and a pile of plants you want to arrange sensibly rather than by trial.
Plan the layout of the space below. 1. **Map the conditions across the space.** Where the sun falls at different times, where it is windy, where water collects or drains too fast, what the neighbouring structures do. Ask me anything you need. 2. **Place the plants**, using mature size rather than the size they arrive at. State the spacing and say explicitly what will look sparse for the first two years and why that is correct. 3. **Layers.** Height, structure through winter, and what carries each season so there is not a dead month. 4. **Access.** Where I will stand to weed, water, and harvest. Do not design something I cannot reach the back of. 5. **Describe the layout in words and as a simple text diagram**, with dimensions. Tell me honestly if I am trying to fit too much in, and say what to cut. Overplanting is the most common mistake and I would rather hear it now. Space, dimensions, and aspect: Plants I have or want: Climate and soil: How much maintenance I want:
Making it yours
- Paste your own material where the prompt asks for it. Everything above that line is instruction, not content.
- Delete any rule that does not apply to you. A shorter prompt that fits beats a thorough one that does not.
- If the answer comes back vague, add a line saying what you do not want. Constraints work better than encouragement.
Planning the garden. Bed and balcony layouts, the jobs this month, and records that stop you relearning the same lesson.
Related prompts
What to do in the garden this monthThe start of a month, wanting a list pinned to your climate rather than a generic one.Set up a garden journal worth keepingYou keep learning the same lesson every year because nothing was written down.Is it too late to plant this?Standing over a bare patch in the wrong month.What should I do in the garden this month?The start of a month, wanting the jobs that cannot wait.Diagnose a plant problem from symptomsSomething is wrong with a plant and the internet says it is either too much or too little water.Work out a watering routine for my actual conditionsThe label says "water regularly" and you have killed three plants finding out what that means.
Keep this one
Phrasery saves prompts with a right-click and puts them back the same way. Add this to your own library in one click.
Add to your browser — free