Plotlay Open the app →

Learn · Homeowners and renovators · Lesson 7 of 8

Choose and plant a garden

You willFind plants that suit your climate, plant a bed in a style, and lay out a vegetable patch in rows.
Time5 min
Why it mattersThe right plant for the spot saves water, money and replanting: the list knows sizes, climate, water, frost, roots and fire.

Try it in Plotlay → Opens an example project with this lesson beside it. Nothing to install.

Steps

  1. Open the Library tab and the Plants shelf. Each group (natives, fruit trees, hedges, vegetables...) opens on its own.
  2. Use the chips to narrow it: Australian native, Edible, Drought tolerant, Frost hardy, Fire-wise, Under 3 m, Suits this site. Or search with words such as native screening under 3 m.
  3. Check Climate zone. It comes from your location (the nearest reference town); pick another zone if your site is higher, colder or more sheltered.
  4. Pick a plant and click the plan to place it at its mature spread. Select it to see About this plant: climate, water, frost, roots, fire and, for edibles, harvest and spacing.
  5. Draw a bed, select it, and under Landscape style choose a style, then Plant this bed. Plants that don’t suit your climate are swapped for ones that do.
  6. For vegetables, select a bed and open Vegetable patch. Choose a month and crops (or none for what can be sown now), then Plant crop rows.

Tips

  • Weeds are hidden until you turn off Hide weeds: they stay in the list so plants already in a garden can be recorded.
  • The plant schedule (Export, then schedules) lists each plant’s botanical name, number and mature size.

Common mistakes

  • Planting a big tree near the house: check Roots in About this plant, and the warning when a canopy reaches a building.
  • Trusting the zone blindly: it is approximate. A frost hollow or a hill site can be a zone cooler than the town nearby.
Check yourself

Which chip shows plants with low flammability for a bushfire area?

Words in this lesson

Library
Real-sized things to place, by category and subcategory: kitchen, bathroom, furniture, lighting, power, heating, stairs, outdoor, site, commercial, vehicles, plants. Search in your own words (GPO, countertop), filter, and star favourites.
Schedule
A table drawn from the plan: rooms and finishes, doors, windows, plants or materials. It updates as the plan changes and downloads as CSV.

Related lessons

Show the house before and afterMark what is there now and what is new, then switch between the current house and the proposal.4 minWalk through your plan in 3DTurn the plan into a 3D model, walk through it at eye height and save a picture.3 minRead and download the schedulesGet the room, finish, door and window schedules on screen, fill in finishes, and download them as CSV.3 min

Steps checked in the app on 17 October 2026.