To make it more visible, these are the basic rules of landscaping:
O = house, X= space where you can only have flowers and items, U = space for trees/bushes/bamboo/stones
UUUUUU UUUUUUUUUUUU
UXXXXX UXXXXXXXXXXU
UXOOOXUXOOOXXOOOXU
UXOOOXUXOOOXXOOOXU
UXOOOXUXOOOXXOOOXU
UXXXXX UXXXXXXXXXXU
UUUUUU UUUUUUUUUUUU
It?s not the best to see but all fixed objects
O need to have this
X-boarder around them and the boarder around them
cannot overlap.
As you can see above, there are 3 houses: house
one and
two are 3 tiles apart, so you can plant trees and bushes inbetween them. You cant put a PWP there, even if it?s just 1 tile big, because it needs a X-boarder around it. Houses
two and
three are just 2 tiles appart, you can only plant flowers inbetween them and you can?t put them closer together because they would interfere with eachothers boarder.
- - - Post Merge - - -
I would honestly just decide where the fixed PWPs should go (and which of them you even want to have) and then where you would ideally want your villagers to live. Then based on that I would put down the main paths and start plot resetting to get villagers where you want them to be. Even if someone is already in your town and you like them, you can always pay someone 5-10 tbt here to have them moved back in when you are done. So I really wouldn?t worry where the villagers live now. I would decide on paths that make me acess all my town without big open areas and place them based on the location of the important buildings and my ideal villager-house locations.