If you want to draw something in your environment, you often see so many shapes, colors and details that it can be difficult to determine what you will and will not draw and how. In that case, it is first of all good to realize that a drawing does not have to become a photo.
One of the possibilities with drawing from observation is to focus on shadows/gray tones, just as painters sometimes only focus on color. Furthermore you can always leave out what you want. In the three bushes (image), even everything from the environment has been left out. Also no attempt has been made to draw leaves exactly. However, shadows create the suggestion of bushes.
A drawing is an image that stands on its own. Who cares afterwards whether the next drawing of shadows in a backyard corresponds to reality on date X and time X? Of course I tried to draw the shadows I saw as well as possible with my 2B pencil, but the ‘meditative’ slowness of that process is something completely different from taking a photo. By the way: even photographer-artists search for creative ways tot make their pictures more than pure registration.
By drawing only shadows, the shapes often emerge naturally on your paper. Even a completely unattractive still life (photo) can thus become the inspiration for a drawing.
EXTRA: Choose something from your environment, indoors or outdoors, and try to draw only the shadow shapes. First take a picture if you like. Of course you can choose other materials than pencil.