Tom Whitfield

Plants & Climate Editor

Covers regional planting — arid, coastal, tropical and cold-climate yards — and what survives in each without constant irrigation.

Editorial byline for the AI Landscape Design team. Articles under this name are researched, written and fact-checked in-house; every figure is sourced to a page you can open yourself.

5 posts

• Side yard landscaping ideas: 10 that work in a narrow strip

  Ten side yard ideas for a narrow, shaded strip: gravel paths, shade planting, storage, a dog run, a rain garden — what each needs and when it is wrong.

• Small backyard landscaping ideas that hold up

  10 ideas for a backyard under 400 sq ft: what each costs, what it needs, when it is wrong — and the mature plant widths that ruin small yards.

• Arid landscape AI: designing a dry yard from a photo

  Why AI fills dry yards with lawn, which regional palette actually survives, and the maturity trap that makes a desert render 15 years optimistic.

• Best free AI garden design apps 2026

  Garden design apps and planners compared on published 2026 pricing, plus the planting jobs an AI render cannot do: spacing, succession, hardiness.

• How to design my backyard: the order that works

  Measure, list the uses, size each footprint, set the routes, fix levels, plant in layers, then test the look — with the real dimensions each step needs.