Some of our most treasured landscapes are shaped by the everyday intentions and actions of ordinary people. Yet design of the environment has been delegated by default, or rather as a result of a concerted campaign against the commons, to those with funds, power and vested interests in the constrained use of public space. The job of the landscape architect can be extended to allow for situations where they do not directly design, but rather write Design Code - consisting of a set of prescriptions – to enable non-designer citizens to ‘own’, influence and physically change the places they live. This essay examines four landscapes shaped by vernacular practices, the conditions that brought them about and the regulations that now restrict them. An attempt is made to establish what form a new Design Code for vernacular placemaking could take - that could embrace the everyday narratives of ordinary people and acknowledge the specificity of every landscape.