you want your area to be food producing or decorative or a mix of the two? Do you want your garden to be water wise? This may mean turfing the turf and choosing particular plants (see next point). What sort of plants do you want? This will really be governed by your location. If you live (like I do) in a very hot climate you may want to look into drought resistant plants. I live coastally so they also need to be hardy little suckers. I also want them to be bird and bug attracting which means I lean towards natives. Once I had figured out the 'premise' of my yard it was a lot easier to step forward. I decided on a very productive space where most of the plants have a purpose be they edible or medicinal. I want lots of bird and bee attracting natives. I do not want to use chemicals and I would like it to be water wise... this means saying goodbye to our massive patch of lawn. I also picked out some 'heroes'. These were gardeners that gave advice that resonated with me and seemed practical. If I needed information I would then Google them. For the record my personal heroes are Don Burke and Josh Byrne . Step 3 -- Know Your Site... How do you know how much paint you are going to need if you don't know the size of the canvas? There are a few basic things you need