How to Build Your Landscape Design Yourself: A Step-by-Step DIY Order of Work

A landscape design, whether it came from a designer, a magazine or an AI render of your own yard, shows you the finish line. It doesn't tell you what to do on Saturday morning, or in what order. Get the order wrong and the new shrubs get trampled by the wheelbarrow on its way to the path.

Here's an honest order of work for a typical homeowner project (new beds, new plants, maybe a gravel path) plus the parts to hand to a professional.

The extension guidance below was checked in October 2026. Plant tags, product labels and your local extension service beat any general guide, including this one.

The order of work at a glance

The Arizona Municipal Water Users Association's landscaping guide puts the rule plainly: install most hardscape before the irrigation and plants, and mulch after the plants.

Step 1: Call before you dig, even for planting

In the US, 811 is the free national before-you-dig service. You contact it a few business days before digging and utility companies mark the approximate location of buried lines. Its own site says that applies to "common projects like planting trees and shrubs," not just big excavations. In Canada, clickbeforeyoudig.com routes you to the locate service for your province.

It feels like overkill for a shrub bed, but you can't see a buried line from the surface, and the call costs nothing but a few days.

Step 2: Mark the beds and paths

Lay a garden hose along the edge you want and look at it from the house, the street and the spot you sit most. When you like it, trace it; Penn State Extension's bed-building video uses upside-down marking paint. Mark the paths too, before you remove any grass. Moving a hose is free; moving a bed is a weekend.

Step 3: Remove the grass

You have three honest options, and the right one depends on how soon you want to plant:

Oregon State Extension recommends removing sod entirely where you can, because living root fragments can come back. A small bed is doable with a sharp flat spade, and the cut sod can go on the compost pile.

Step 4: Build the hard parts

Edging, gravel paths, stepping stones and simple borders are reasonable DIY work. Do them now, while the beds are empty and the wheelbarrow can roll anywhere. For a patio, read the product instructions on base depth and compaction before you commit.

Step 5: Test and prepare the soil

The University of Minnesota Extension recommends a soil test whenever you convert a lawn to a garden bed: it reports texture, pH, organic matter, phosphorus and potassium, with fertilizer recommendations. Send the sample during Prep, since results take time. Then loosen the soil and work in compost where the test says it's needed, but, per Minnesota's planting guidance, never backfill a planting hole entirely with a soil amendment.

Step 6: Plant, biggest first

Set trees and large shrubs first, then smaller shrubs, then perennials and groundcovers. Minnesota Extension's planting guidance:

• Dig the hole at least 1 to 2 feet wider than the root system.
• Plant so the trunk flare (where the trunk widens into roots) sits slightly above the soil surface; Minnesota says about an inch.
• Water immediately after planting.

Set the plants out in their pots first and check the spacing from the house. The tag's mature width is the one to trust, even if the bed looks sparse at first.

Step 7: Mulch and water

Spread mulch 2 to 3 inches deep and pull it back from trunks and stems; Minnesota says at least 4 inches, Penn State says 3 inches away and no deeper than 3. Either way, no mulch piled against the bark.

Then water on a schedule, not on a feeling. Penn State Extension's guidance for new trees: daily for the first 2 weeks, every 2 to 3 days through week 12, then weekly. Minnesota's schedule is the same. Check the soil before each watering; overwatering kills new plants too, especially in clay. New lawn and desert plants follow different rules.

When to hire a pro

Some steps aren't harder DIY. They're the wrong DIY, because mistakes are dangerous or costly to undo:

• Electrical wiring beyond plug-in low-voltage lighting
• Gas lines for fire pits, grills or heaters
• Retaining walls, especially taller ones, which often need engineering or a permit; check your local rules
• Removing large trees or stumps
• Regrading and drainage, including French drains
• Anything that needs a permit

Splitting the job is fine: a landscaper builds the wall, you do the planting. And whatever time you budget, pad it. People reliably underestimate their own projects (psychologists call it the planning fallacy; Buehler, Griffin and Ross, 1994). Plan in weekends, not hours.

Getting a plan for YOUR yard

The order above is general; your yard has its own beds, slope and plants. Full disclosure: we make Yardscaper, and it's one way to get a plan for your yard, not the only one. It turns a photo of your yard into a photorealistic redesign that keeps your house, driveway and camera angle, with a plant & materials list when the AI can name what it drew. For homeowners, saved designs also get a "How would I build this?" guide written for that design:

• Ordered steps in Prep, Build, Plant and Finish, each with what to buy, the tools, and an honest effort and time range ("A few hours," "About a day," "1–2 weekends").
• Call 811 first, always. The first step is fixed: call 811 in the US or use clickbeforeyoudig.com in Canada. The AI doesn't get to skip it.
• Risky work is marked "best left to a landscaper" (wiring, gas, retaining walls, big trees, stumps) with no DIY instructions for those steps.
• "More detail" on any DIY step (smaller steps and the usual mistakes), and "Show me where": your own photo with the new beds outlined in orange, so you know where the hose goes in Step 2.
• Build mode shows one step at a time, reads it aloud, and offers a "Check my work" photo check on your phone.
• "When will you do this?" puts a day for each phase on your calendar, and once you say you've planted, the watering plan for those plants goes on the same calendar.

What it doesn't do: it never shows prices or quantities (nobody can measure a yard from one photo, so measure your beds and ask the nursery), and it's not a CAD plan or an irrigation design. It runs in the browser on any phone or computer, and the build guide comes with Free and DIY Pro accounts.

Still at the planning stage? Our backyard makeover planning guide covers budget, zones and phases. Comparing design tools first? Our 2026 app comparison covers the field, including free options. Planting this fall? Our fall cleanup post covers fall planting windows.

In one line

• Starting from scratch → call 811, mark with a hose, then work hard-to-soft.
• Want to plant this season → cut the sod out. Can wait until spring → smother it.
• Design has walls, wiring or big trees → hire those parts out and DIY the rest.
• Want the plan for your own yard → try a design free; 3 on the demo with no account, 5 more with a free account, then 3 every 4 weeks.

Try Yardscaper's free demo (3 designs, no account) → yardscaper.app/try