I teach budding designers about the beautiful world of garden design and landscape graphics in a fun and simple way.
I’m Lisa Nunamaker — a garden design educator, writer, illustrator, and speaker who’s passionate about helping you bring your garden dreams to life. After a decade as a landscape architect, I discovered something surprising: while I loved designing gardens, what truly lights me up is inspiring you to design your own.
That’s how Paper Garden Workshop was born. The word Paper is a nod to where all great gardens start—inspired sketches on paper (even when I work digitally, my pencil always comes first). Workshop is all about rolling up your sleeves and practicing those design and drawing skills. Together, Paper Garden Workshop is a lively, creative space where you can learn, experiment, and grow as a garden designer—no experience required.
Learn how to draw your garden dreams.Â
Please join our 2026 waiting list below.
Contact me at [email protected]Â with questions.
Join our waiting list here.You might have seen me here...
Curious to learn more about garden design?
Maybe you’ve taken a design course or read plenty of books, but now you’re ready to dive deeper and put your knowledge into practice.
My membership program is designed to build on the foundation you’ve already laid...guiding you step-by-step as you grow your skills and confidence.
Fall Enrollment in September
Sign up below to be the first to know when doors reopen!
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Peanut Butter + Jelly Garden
A super fun ebook to help guide your unique garden vision.
Garden Doodle Sheets
A engaging workbook with pre-designed garden outlines ready for you to fill in the fun details.
It's sort of like a studio library, but way more fun.
A garden design blog with lots of goodness.
I love exploring engaging ways to teach garden design and landscape graphics. My blog has a plethora of posts that covers the umbrella view of the design process all the way to the details of drawing plants on a piece of paper, plus everything in-between.
Let's head over!
Bubble Diagrams
This is wonderful way to organize your spaces without a lot of detail and drawing investment. The purpose of a functional diagram is to study the relationship of spaces and the movement or visual connections between them.
Garden Structure
This can be the most challenging, yet the most fun part of developing your spatial design. Once you create a bubble diagram to organize your outdoor spaces, the next step is defining the structure of those spaces.
Preliminary Design
The preliminary design builds on the garden structure study by adding the location of plant and hardscape materials, though plants are not yet identified. The goal of this step is to create an engaging plan in which someone can start to imagine themself in it.
Line Weights for Landscape Plans
Proper line weights give your drawing depth and clarity. Few line weights will make your drawing feel flat, while a variety, used in the right way, will assist in communicating your design as a three-dimensional space.
Drawing Plant Symbols Practice Sheet
Step-by-step process of drawing plant symbols, a practice sheet, plus a collection of different types of deciduous and evergreen symbols that someone could use on a landscape plan.
Elevation to Plan
One of the best ways to design is to draw your ideas in elevation, especially when making a composition of plants. This allows you to visualize the plant forms in a holistic composition.
Everyone was so thrilled with your presentations. Learning and laughing at the same time is great! I enjoyed every minute of your visit.
-Susan, Eau Claire, Wisconsin
I'd love to visit with your group
I enjoy sharing tips on garden design and landscape graphics. My goal for each presentation is for the audience to have fun, while also learning something new. Really, I want audience members to walk away with an ah-ha moment.
Please tell me more!Hang out with me on Instagram
Would you like to learn some great tips on garden design + landscape graphics?
Subscribe to my free newsletter: THE PENCIL CASE. Trust me, it will be lots of fun. I'll even let you take a peek at past issues here.
Let's do this!