Biodiversity Garden Blueprints
Versatile Garden Planting Plans
Beautiful For You. Better For Wildlife
Bring professional planting design into your own garden with our downloadable Biodiversity Garden Blueprints. Each plan combines naturalistic planting with practical guidance to help you create a border that offers seasonal beauty and supports wildlife.
Choose a blueprint suited to your growing conditions, then use its planting layout, plant list and care guidance to bring the scheme to life.
10 m² Design
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Native & Ornamental species
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Adaptable Designs
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Maintenance Guide
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Planting Palette
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Easy to follow
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Wildlife Gardens
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Biodiversity Principals
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10 m² Design • Native & Ornamental species • Adaptable Designs • Maintenance Guide • Planting Palette • Easy to follow • Wildlife Gardens • Biodiversity Principals •
Choose your garden planting plan
The Dry Garden - Planting Plan - PDF Download
Create a beautiful, wildlife-friendly, climate resilient border for a sunny garden with dry, well-drained soil.
The Dry Garden is a downloadable PDF planting blueprint from The Gardener’s Lodge, bringing together drought-tolerant planting, naturalistic design and practical ways to support biodiversity.
Soft grasses, silver foliage and flowers in pink, purple and white create a border full of texture, movement and seasonal interest. A carefully chosen mix of UK native and non-native plants provides food and shelter for wildlife, with value extending beyond the flowering season.
What size garden is it designed for?
The planting plan covers a 5 m long × 2 m deep border — a total of 10 m². You can recreate the complete scheme, use it to refresh an existing bed, or take inspiration from its plant combinations for another sunny part of your garden.
For a longer border, repeat the planting scheme lengthways. The blueprint recommends using the hawthorn once as a feature tree, then using its position in additional sections for wildlife features such as a bird bath, small pond or log pile. In a smaller garden, the tree can be treated as optional.
How many plants are included?
The full scheme contains 39 individual plants across 12 species, combining:
One feature tree.
1 shrub.
1 climber.
32 perennials across eight flowering varieties
1 ornamental grasses.
A labelled planting plan and shopping list show which plants to buy, how many you need and where to position them.
Where can you use this dry garden planting plan?
This scheme is designed for full sun and free-draining soil, particularly where borders dry out quickly or struggle to retain moisture.
It can suit sunny front gardens, back garden borders, planting beside patios and warm walls, and suitable sandy, gravelly or stony soils. It is especially useful if you want a drought-resistant garden border with less dependence on regular watering once established.
The design can be used in suitable gardens across England: your site conditions matter more than your postcode. Choose a sunny position with good drainage throughout the year, and check individual plant suitability in particularly cold or exposed locations. Heavy soil that becomes waterlogged in winter will need a different approach.
New plants will still need watering while their roots establish, and occasional support may be necessary during prolonged drought.
Designed for a changing climate
A more resilient garden starts with choosing plants that suit its conditions. The Dry Garden brings together plants selected to cope with periods of summer dryness once established, helping you create a beautiful, wildlife-friendly border with less reliance on regular watering.
The blueprint goes beyond plant selection, with guidance on protecting soil, conserving moisture and collecting rainwater - practical habits that help prepare your garden before dry weather arrives.
Good drainage remains essential, particularly through wetter winters. In a sunny, well-drained position, this scheme offers a practical starting point for gardening with a changing climate while continuing to provide food and habitat for wildlife.
What’s included in the PDF?
An illustrated garden design and labelled planting layout.
A complete plant shopping list with quantities.
Individual plant profiles.
A seasonal interest and wildlife calendar.
Biodiversity gardening principles and habitat ideas.
Practical planting and maintenance guidance.
Advice on preparing for drought, managing moisture and storing rainwater.
Use it as a complete border design, a starting point for a larger planting scheme, or a practical guide to choosing plants and caring for a dry garden with wildlife in mind.
Digital PDF download only. Plants, materials and installation are not included.
Popular
The Shade Garden - Planting Plan - PDF Download
Create a lush, wildlife-friendly border for a shady city garden or woodland setting.
The Shade Garden is a downloadable PDF planting blueprint from The Gardener’s Lodge, bringing together naturalistic design, shade-tolerant planting and practical ways to support biodiversity.
Layered ferns, textured foliage and soft sedges create a woodland feel, with flowers in cream, white, burgundy, pink and violet adding seasonal colour. A mix of UK native plants and selected garden varieties provides food, shelter and habitat for wildlife, with interest extending beyond the flowering season.
Designed for moisture-retentive soil that stays slightly moist, this scheme can cope with some shorter dry spells once established. It is not a dry-shade planting plan.
What size garden is it designed for?
The planting plan covers a 5 m long × 2 m deep border - a total of 10 m². Recreate the complete scheme, refresh an existing shady bed, or use its plant combinations as inspiration for another suitable area.
For a longer border, repeat the planting scheme lengthways.
For a smaller space, use a fewer number of plants.
How many plants are included?
The full scheme contains 44 individual plants across 12 species, combining:
1 shrub
1 climber
26 flowering perennials
2 ferns
1 groundcover
1 sedge (ornamental Grass)
A labelled planting plan and shopping list show which plants to buy, how many you need and where to position them.
Where can you use this shade garden planting plan?
This scheme is designed for partial or dappled shade, with humus-rich soil that holds moisture but drains freely.
It can suit sheltered city gardens shaded by surrounding buildings, borders beside walls and fences, and woodland-style back gardens beneath an open tree canopy. It is particularly useful where you want to bring a lush, layered feel to a garden with limited direct sunlight.
The design can be used in suitable gardens across England, provided the light and soil conditions match. A shady position is not automatically a moist one: buildings can shelter soil from rainfall, while tree roots and overhead foliage can leave woodland borders surprisingly dry.
Choose this blueprint for soil that remains reasonably moist through much of the growing season, rather than persistently dry ground beneath dense trees or overhanging structures. Occasional drier periods are manageable with established planting and appropriate care, but prolonged dryness will require watering. Avoid waterlogged soil and very deep, dark shade.
What’s included in the PDF?
An illustrated garden design and labelled planting layout.
A complete plant shopping list with quantities.
Individual plant profiles.
A seasonal interest and wildlife calendar.
Biodiversity gardening principles and habitat ideas.
Practical planting and seasonal maintenance guidance.
Advice on soil care, leaf litter, mulching and managing moisture.
Use it as a complete shady border design, a starting point for a larger woodland planting scheme, or a practical guide to creating a wildlife-friendly garden in a sheltered urban space.
Digital PDF download only. Plants, materials and installation are not included.
What’s included in a
Biodiversity Garden Blueprint?
Each downloadable PDF brings the design and planting guidance together:
A planting layout for a 5 × 2 metre border.
A plant list and quantities for the illustrated scheme.
Plant profiles to help you understand the planting.
A seasonal interest and wildlife calendar.
Practical guidance on establishing and caring for your border.
You’re buying a garden design resource to use at home.
Plants and installation are not included.
See how the blueprints work
Join garden designer Mykal Hoare for a look inside the collection: what you receive, how to choose a scheme and how to use it in your own garden.
Each scheme is designed around a 5 × 2 metre planting area.
You can recreate it in a suitable border or draw on its plant combinations and customise it to fit your space.
Adapting the designs means considering the space you already have, mature plant sizes, spacing, light and soil - not simply increasing or reducing every plant quantity.
Trees, shrubs and climbers also need enough room to develop beyond the initial planting layout.
The blueprint gives you a starting point.
Your garden’s conditions will dictate how you use it.
Designed for a border. Adaptable to your garden.
A garden’s value to wildlife extends beyond its flowers. Planting can also provide foliage, berries, seeds, shelter and places for insects to overwinter.
Our blueprints bring these different roles into the design, helping you understand what the planting can offer across the seasons.
How you care for the border matters too - from retaining useful seed heads to allowing fallen leaves to support life in the soil.
All our Biodiversity garden principals are detailed inside the Blueprints.
More Than Just a Beautiful Garden.
Garden Designer • Horticulturalist • Garden & Nature Communicator
I’m a garden designer and horticulturist, and the founder of The Gardener’s Lodge. I create naturalistic gardens shaped by biodiversity—spaces that are beautiful to spend time in and generous to wildlife.
These blueprints bring that approach into a collection of planting plans you can use in your own garden.
Designed by Mykal Hoare
FAQ
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Choose according to your garden’s light, soil and drainage—not just the plants you like.
Each Blueprint product page explains the conditions the scheme is designed for. The Dry Garden suits full sun and free-draining soil, while The Shade Garden is designed for shady spaces with moist soil, rather than dry shade.
Be sure to each each with care.
If you are unsure about which suits your garden best: Get in touch to arrange a consultation -
Yes. Each planting layout is designed for a 5 × 2 metre border, but it is designed to be replicated across a larger border or alternatively the plant combinations can be adapted to other spaces.
Each blueprint has advice on this included inside. -
You’ll receive a downloadable PDF containing the planting plan and supporting guidance described on the product page. After purchase, we will send an email with a download link. This is a digital product; no printed booklet or plants will be posted to you.
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You don’t need to be an experienced gardener, but you should be willing to assess your growing conditions, prepare the border and care for the plants as they establish. The blueprint provides a planting design and practical guidance; it isn’t a complete, step-by-step landscaping manual.
Get in touch to arrange a consultation if you need additional help -
Each blueprint combines UK-native and non-native plants, with the selection varying between blueprints. Plants are chosen for their suitability to the growing conditions, their design role and what they can offer wildlife.
Check each product’s plant list if you’re looking for a predominantly native scheme. -
Yes, but choose an alternative with similar growing requirements, mature size and growth habit.
Consider its flowering season and wildlife value too, as a substitution can change what the border offers across the year.
Matching flower colour alone won’t necessarily produce a suitable replacement, but it is a good starting point. -
The blueprints are ready-made planting designs, rather than bespoke plans for an individual site.
Personal consultations, design revisions and tailored planting advice aren’t included. If you’d like help adapting a scheme or designing your garden, explore our garden consultation and design services.