Native Garden Planner

Learn how to measure distances and add straight lines to your garden design in Native Garden Planner! In this quick tutorial, we'll cover the Ruler and Line tools, making it easy to plan layouts, mark dimensions, and create clean, precise designs.

This video is part of the NGP Basics series — a step-by-step playlist that covers everything you need to know to design your first native garden, from creating a project to choosing plants and exporting your finished design.

In this video you'll learn:

How to measure distances with the Ruler tool
How to draw straight lines on the canvas
How to adjust and edit line properties
Practical ways to use rulers and lines while designing
Tips for creating accurate, well-organized layouts

Transcript

[0:00] Hey everybody, welcome to part six of how to design a simple garden. Now we're going to explore the control panel a little further — specifically the ruler tool and the line tool.

Ruler tool

[0:10] The ruler tool lives in the control panel and looks like a small yardstick. It's useful whenever you need to verify the distance between any two elements — garden beds, shapes, paths, or anything else on your canvas.

To use it, click and drag from one point to another. The distance displays as you drag. Once you release, you have two options:

Discard it — just read the measurement and move on
Save it — hit Save and the ruler becomes a permanent line on your canvas that you can reference while continuing to design

Lines as reference guides

[0:57] Saved ruler measurements are stored as lines — canvas elements you can reposition, rotate, color, and label. This makes them handy as reference guides for precise layouts.

For example, if you need a specific element to sit exactly 2.75 ft from your garden bed:

Use the ruler to draw and save a line at 2.75 ft
Select the line, change its color to something visible (purple, for example), and rotate it if needed — either by dragging the rotation handle or entering an exact angle in the sidebar
Enable Show side length on canvas in the line's settings so the measurement label is always visible
Drag the line into position as a reference marker
Use the center tool to snap it to the horizontal or vertical center of the canvas if needed

You can now position other elements against the line and know the spacing is exact. Use the ruler again at any point to double-check a distance, save the measurement as another line, and build up a precise layout grid.

Lines and the ruler tool are a simple but powerful combination — measure once, save as a reference, and use it to keep every element in your garden exactly where it needs to be.