Backyard Layout
120 m²
A backyard plan with patio, lawn, planting beds and an outdoor seating area.
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Every landscape plan is decided by where the water goes. Ground next to a building should fall away from it by 6 in over the first 10 ft (15 cm over 3 m), and every paved surface has to be graded at about 1/4 in per foot (20 mm per metre) toward somewhere the water can go. Get those two wrong and the planting, the paving and the seating all become secondary problems. Work out the high point and the low point of the site first, mark them on the plan, and let the levels tell you where the terraces and the steps have to be.
A sloping site works when it is broken into level terraces joined by steps. Outdoor steps are shallower and deeper than indoor ones: a riser of 5 in to 7 in (13 cm to 18 cm) with a tread of 12 in to 18 in (30 cm to 45 cm), keeping twice the riser plus the tread near 26 in (65 cm). Retaining is the other half. A wall holding back more than 4 ft (1.2 m) of soil normally needs engineered design in most jurisdictions, and any retaining wall needs free-draining backfill behind it or water pressure will push it over. SpacePlanner handles multiple levels through stairs, so terraces can be drawn as separate levels rather than guessed at.
Paving, walls and driveways are the expensive, permanent part of a landscape and the part least worth guessing. Draw them to real dimensions and count the area before pricing anything. Trees are just as permanent in their own way: their mature spread, not their nursery size, is what decides spacing, and on shrinkable clay soils a tree should generally sit at least its mature height away from a building. Existing trees you plan to keep need a root protection area with a radius of about 12 times the trunk diameter, kept clear of trenching and paving.
Before any shape is decided, mark the highest and lowest ground you measured, the building threshold level, and where water currently leaves the site. Put the building footprint on the canvas as the fixed datum everything else is measured down from.
Split a sloping site into level platforms and decide the drop between each one. Use separate levels connected by stairs so the terraces stay honest rather than being drawn as one flat plan with a slope implied.
Draw paving, walls, steps and the driveway at their real dimensions. Check each flight has consistent risers and that every paved area has somewhere for its fall to drain to before you go any further.
Put trees and large shrubs in at their mature spread, not their nursery size, and check the distance to buildings, boundaries and drains. Then view the plan in 3D to see how the levels read from the house.
Landscape work is unforgiving because most of it is buried or set in concrete. A fall in the wrong direction, a retaining wall built without drainage, a tree planted too close to a foundation: each one is cheap to prevent on the plan and expensive to correct afterward. These are the figures worth checking before the ground is broken. Local codes vary, so treat the structural and drainage rows as the point at which to check yours.
| Measure | Imperial | Metric | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ground fall away from a building, first 10 ft | 6 in | 15 cm | About a 5 percent slope. Never fall toward the building. |
| Surface fall from a paved area to its outfall | 1/4 in per ft | 20 mm per m | Roughly 1:50. Grade it to a channel, swale or planted bed. |
| Outdoor step riser | 5 to 7 in | 13 to 18 cm | Keep every riser in a flight identical. |
| Outdoor step tread | 12 to 18 in | 30 to 45 cm | Aim for twice the riser plus the tread near 26 in. |
| Landing in a flight of garden steps | 36 in | 90 cm | Minimum depth where a flight turns or meets a path. |
| Maximum slope of an accessible ramp | 1 in rise per 12 in run | 1:12 (8.3%) | A gentler 1:15 is easier to use where space allows. |
| Retaining wall height needing engineered design | over 4 ft | over 1.2 m | Measured from the footing. Check your local threshold. |
| Free-draining backfill behind a retaining wall | 12 in | 30 cm | Gravel plus a perforated drain to a defined outlet. |
| Soakaway or drainage outlet from a building | 16 ft | 5 m | Keeps discharged water away from the foundations. |
| Root protection radius, tree with a 12 in trunk | 12 ft | 3.6 m | Twelve times trunk diameter. No trenching or paving inside it. |
Plan gardens, patios, pools and outdoor kitchens on the same canvas as your interior rooms.
Click to place walls with live dimensions and smart snapping. Everything stays to scale.
Connect floors and outdoor levels with stairs to design split-level homes and sloped gardens.
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Plan outdoor spaces online for free - patios, gardens, backyards, pools and outdoor kitchens. Draw in your browser, no signup.
Plan your patio online for free. Lay out paving, furniture and planters to scale in your browser. No signup needed.
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Yes. You can plan gardens, patios, backyards, pools and outdoor kitchens alongside indoor rooms on the same canvas.
Break the slope into level terraces and treat each one as its own level, joined by steps. SpacePlanner supports multiple levels connected by stairs, so a terraced garden can be drawn level by level instead of flattened onto a single plan. Set the drop between terraces first, then divide it into equal risers.
A landscape plan deals with the ground: levels, falls, drainage, retaining, paving and trees. A garden plan deals with growing beds and access to them, and a garden layout plan deals with border depth and planting spacing. On a sloping or wet site the landscape decisions come first, because they determine what the other two can do.
You can read the drawn dimensions and area of each paved shape directly off the plan, which is what you need to size an order. SpacePlanner draws surfaces to scale in metric or imperial and labels the dimensions, but it does not price materials or generate a quantity schedule for you.
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