Tell us the six things that decide everything.

Not your taste — your constraints. Where you are, how big it is, which way it faces, what the soil does. Those four settle most of the plant list before anyone has an opinion about it.

01 / Postcode

France, Belgium and Switzerland. The zone appears as you type.

02 / Length and width, in metres

112,0 m². Length is away from the house, width is along it. Pace it out — a stride is close enough to a metre.

03 / Which way do you look when you step out?

This decides where the shade has to come from. A phone compass is accurate enough.

04 / Soil

ClaySticky when wet, cracks in August.LoamCrumbles in the hand. The easy one.SandDrains within minutes, never sticky.Chalk or limestonePale, stony, alkaline.

05 / Direction

Dry gardenGravel, silver foliage and grasses. No irrigation after the second summer.Green and shadedLayers of foliage, a canopy tree, ferns and hydrangeas. Cool in August.ProductiveRaised beds, fruit and herbs against the terrace, with room to work.Contemporary linesClipped forms, single-species blocks, one tree and a straight edge.

06 / What you expect the works to cost

2 000 – 5 000 €5 000 – 10 000 €10 000 – 20 000 €20 000 – 30 000 €

A bracket, not a promise. The Budget is costed honestly against it, even when the honest answer is that it does not fit.

No account, no email, no card. The Preview is free.

Podium Landscape — an automated landscape design studio. France, Belgique, Suisse.

Questions? Reply to any of our emails and a person reads it.