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Fit and Spend Preview
Answer a few questions about one bed and this works out what suits the spot, roughly what it costs to fill, and what to do in the first year. Free, and nothing is saved unless you ask for it.
Location
Which state is the garden in?
Prohibited-plant lists, native ranges and winter lows all change at the state line, and this is the field that decides which of each applies.
Location
Which county?
Or pick whichever of the two descriptions on the next screen sounds like where you live.
County is enough to fix the ecoregion, the winter low range and the nearest weather station. A street address is not needed and is never asked for.
Geometry
What shape is the space?
Set it on the drawing above.
The drawing starts from this answer, and the shape decides how many plants actually fit once paths and clearances come out.
If you do not know: The example bed stays on the drawing until you set one, and the plan is drawn as a rectangle.
Sun
On a clear day in June, when does direct sun reach this spot?
Direct sun means you could see your shadow, not just daylight.
This is the single biggest filter on what can be planted, and it is the one people most often estimate high.
If you do not know: The plan uses the more conservative light class of the two most likely, and says so on the assumptions list.
Drainage
After ordinary rain, how long does water sit on the surface?
Ordinary rain, not a storm.
This one observation separates dry, average, moist and wet planting, and it is far more reliable than anyone's guess at their soil type.
If you do not know: The plan assumes average drainage and flags it as needing verification before you buy plants.
Slope
Is the ground level?
Slope changes where water goes, whether mulch stays, and at the steep end whether this is a planting job at all.
If you do not know: Treated as a gentle slope, and flagged for you to check before ordering.
Location
Does the space touch a pond, stream, marsh or the shore?
Planting near water carries permitting rules that vary by town, and this product does not handle them.
If you do not know: One follow-up question about roughly how far the water is, because the answer decides whether this is a plan or a referral to your town.
Soil
Anything you know about what this ground has been used for?
Some histories put a site outside what this product will plan, and it is better to say so now than after you have bought plants.
If you do not know: Treated as ordinary garden ground. If you later find out otherwise, this is one of the answers that can change whether the site is planned at all, so it stays on the assumptions list.
Current cover
What is growing there now?
Preparation is a large part of both the cost and whether the planting takes, and some routes need to start months before planting.
If you do not know: The plan quotes the slower preparation route, which is the one that works for the harder answers.
Time to fullness
How quickly do you want it to look full?
Speed costs money. Seed is cheap and slow, plugs are the middle, larger stock is fast and expensive.
If you do not know: Treated as balanced, and the three scenarios show what the other two would cost.
Sun
Are there deciduous trees overhead that leaf out in spring?
A bed can be full sun in April and full shade in July. Spring bulbs and woodland plants depend on exactly that, and a plan that misses it fails in one season.
If you do not know: Treated as seasonal light uncertainty, which widens the light class rather than narrowing it.
Soil
Dig a trowel in. What does it feel like?
Coarse soil class changes spacing, establishment watering and which plants sulk. What you observe beats what a soil map says about your street.
If you do not know: The plan assumes an ordinary loam, marks the soil as assumed rather than observed, and puts it on the list of things to check with a trowel before you buy plants.
Water
How would you water this in the first eight weeks?
New plants need water while they root, whatever they will tolerate later.
Establishment failure is the commonest way a good plan dies. If watering is hard, the plan changes: smaller stock, different timing, tougher species.
If you do not know: The plan assumes hand watering by can, which is the middle case, and says so.
Herbivory
How much deer or rabbit pressure is there?
Browsing pressure changes what is worth planting. Nothing here is deer-proof, and the plan will not tell you otherwise.
If you do not know: Treated as moderate pressure, which is the safer assumption anywhere deer are around at all.
Weekly effort
How much time can you give it in the first year?
Honestly. A plan built for more time than you have is the one that goes wrong.
Low cash usually means more of your own labor: weeding, watering, preparation. This changes what the plan asks of you.
If you do not know: Treated as under an hour a week, because a plan that needs less time than you have is easy to add to.
Geometry
What is around the edges?
Pick everything that applies.
A window, a path or a gas meter is a hard height and access limit, not a preference. These get drawn as clearances.
If you do not know: You mark the edges on the drawing instead, and until you do the plan keeps everything below three feet, which is the height that is safe against an unmarked window.
Appearance
Which of these is closest to what you want it to look like?
This sets how much repetition there is, how big each group is, and how many different species end up in the plan.
If you do not know: You are shown the same bed drawn three ways and pick from the drawings rather than from the words.
Movement
If plants seeded themselves into the lawn or the path, how would you feel?
Self-seeding is the most common reason people come to dislike a planting that is otherwise doing well.
If you do not know: Treated as a bit of drifting is fine, which is the middle answer, and the plan says which plants move and how far.
Height
Anywhere the planting must stay low?
Pick everything that applies.
These become hard limits in the drawing, not preferences the plan can trade away.
Season
When do you most want this to be doing something?
Weighting one season is a real trade. The plan will still cover the others, but it will lean where you point it.
If you do not know: Treated as balanced.
Wildlife
Is there anything in particular you are hoping to support?
Pick up to three.
Each of these is a different set of plant functions: a nectar plant is not a host plant, and a bee plant is not a bird plant.
Household
Anything about the household to plan around?
Pick everything that applies.
These are placement rules, not exclusions. Bee traffic belongs away from a doorway; thorns belong away from where a child plays.
Native strictness
How strictly native?
There is a real trade here between what is documented locally and what you can actually buy.
If you do not know: Treated as regional, and the plan labels each plant with which it is.
Cultivars
Straight species, or are named varieties fine?
A named variety is a selection of a native species, sometimes with different flower color or size.
Asked explicitly so that a named variety never gets substituted in without you knowing.
If you do not know: Treated as straight species only, which is the answer you can loosen later without redoing anything.
Materials ceiling
What would you rather not go past, for plants and materials?
A number on its own is misleading, so this is quoted against a scope: plants, preparation, tools and shipping are separated in the plan.
If you do not know: The three scenarios are priced without a ceiling, and you can set one after seeing them.
Include prep and tools
Should the budget include preparation and tools?
On a lawn conversion the preparation can cost more than the plants, and pretending otherwise is how a budget breaks.
If you do not know: Costs are itemized separately so you can see each part.
Install phases
All at once, or spread over more than one season?
Phasing can make an otherwise unaffordable design work, as long as each phase is coherent on its own.
If you do not know: Planned as one phase, with a two-phase split shown alongside it.
Maximum retailer orders
How many separate orders are you willing to place?
The cheapest plant often loses to shipping. Fewer orders and lowest landed cost are usually different baskets.
If you do not know: Both baskets are shown and you pick.
Local ecotype
How much does it matter where the plants were grown?
Locally grown stock of local origin is better established practice and is sometimes much harder to buy.
If you do not know: Treated as preferred, and each plant shows what its source actually is.
Substitution tolerance
If something is sold out, what should happen?
Nursery availability moves week to week. A substitute that keeps the same job in the planting is different from any plant with the same flower color.
If you do not know: Treated as tell me and let me decide.
Plants are excluded here when a state's published prohibited or noxious plant list names them, as of the date recorded with each list. Those lists change, states do not agree with each other, and local rules can be stricter than the state's. Nothing here is legal advice or a determination that any plant may be sold, planted, or moved where you live; check the current list published by your state before you buy.
Spend figures are planning bands, not quotes. They are calculated from typical nursery prices for the plant sizes in this plan and from the area you gave us. What you actually pay depends on the nursery, the season, what is in stock, shipping, and how much you buy at once.