A beautiful and harmonious garden is the advantage and pride of any owner. But most owners of country houses have never designed landscape design on their own, and they cannot afford the services of professionals. But creating and maintaining the perfect garden requires time, effort and, most of all, proper planning. It is for such situations that there are many both paid and free programs for planning garden design. The apps we've described below allow you to design a garden of any size, in the style you want, and make it easy to create the garden of your dreams.
We bring to your attention the 12 best free online and offline programs for designing garden landscape design, working on PC, Android and IOS, which can be found in the public domain and downloaded on the Internet.
Gardenia: free online garden planning software
This application is primarily created for planning watering of a garden plot.
The set of landscape elements is quite modest, but you can easily plan your site online (the simplest layout of your garden) and place the main buildings, paths, ponds, beds, trees and shrubs. You can go to the online planner page at this address: https :// www . gardena - planner . ru
You might be interested
Review of 16 free interior design programs
Realtime Landscaping Architect
One of the few software products created not only for professional landscape designers, but also for ordinary users with an intuitive interface. Depending on the choice of installation package, the user is provided with a huge selection of garden plants, more than 1600 elements to be included in the development plan for your site. The software library includes such common decorative elements as outdoor furniture, gazebos, pool accessories, and lamps. The program even includes a selection of kitchen and other outdoor elements. There is a 3D visualization of your site in excellent quality. The interface language is English only. The program is paid, but you can download and install a trial version of the Realtime Landscaping Architect planner. You can download the latest version of this software for free directly from the developer’s website - Realtime landscaping architect 2021.
Working with geodata
Model Studio CS General Plan allows you to integrate a geological model (Fig. 13) - for example, created in the CREDO program - with a three-dimensional model of Model Studio CS and use the data from this model to generate a longitudinal profile, as well as to calculate earthworks for geological layers.
Rice. 13. Example of a geological model
Realtime Landscaping Pro
This is a professional landscape design planner. This site design program is also available for free download. Realtime Landscaping Pro offers great options for visualizing the style of your backyard or garden area. Since the program uses 3D capabilities, your designs will look very realistic. The database contains a huge number of different garden decor elements. As a result, you will be able to plan your garden down to the smallest detail. The application is used by both novice designers and professional craftsmen. Realtime Landscaping Pro works in English and has the ability to save your project.
You can download the program from the link
You might be interested in our articles:
- "Tips for designing a garden landscape design"
- “Ideas for the design of a private house yard: classic design styles”
- “How to arrange eco-parking in a garden plot”
- “Landscape design of a garden plot: arrangement of different areas”
Mobile applications
Using a smartphone or tablet, you can edit the layout on the go, upload photos of the location, and draw on top of the photo.
iScape
iScape
OS:
iOS
License:
shareware
Landscape design platform for iPhone. Connects to the camera and shows on the screen how objects will look in reality. Here you can place plants from the built-in library, and then save the plan to your smartphone.
You can expand the functionality of the editor and get access to all the program's libraries by subscription for $29.99 per month.
Main features:
- ✓ AR design;
- ✓ collection of vegetation and textures.
The visualizer is a universal solution and is used by professional designers and ordinary homeowners.
Home Design 3D Outdoor/Garden
Home Design 3D Outdoor/Garden
OS:
Android, iOS
License:
shareware
Lightweight mobile software for arranging an open space with a large gallery of elements. You will be able to place garden furniture, trees, swimming pools, greenhouses, fences, etc. Each item can have a custom finish. The result will be displayed in 3D and 2D modes.
Main features:
- ✓ more than 100 three-dimensional objects;
- ✓ dragging buildings on the touchscreen;
- ✓ regulation of terrain texture.
Suitable for amateur use as it does not allow precise editing of the layout. And the graphics here seem a little realistic.
Home Outside
Home Outside
OS:
iOS
License:
paid
A visualizer for iOS that offers tools for arranging your flower garden and backyard. It contains more than 700 elements, options for designing sketches, adding buildings, paths and fences.
Home Outside can be downloaded from the App Store for $2.99. The platform also has versions for Android and MacOS, but they are not available at the time of writing.
Main features:
- ✓ support for layers;
- ✓ uploading photos from your phone;
- ✓ linking content to the grid;
- ✓ resize and rotate each part;
- ✓ library of animated figures.
It is not used in a professional environment, as it has limited functionality and creates projects with low detail.
SmartDraw: shareware program
Whether you're new to landscaping planning or a seasoned expert, SmartDraw helps everyone easily create their own backyard and garden designs by adding their desired garden decor elements to the drawing. SmartDraw allows you to add barbecue or grill areas, paths, umbrellas, picnic tables, fountains and lamps to your visual building yard at your discretion. The landscape design program SmartDraw functions as an online application and can be downloaded to your computer. The user is provided with a 7-day trial period.
In addition to creating style content, SmartDraw allows users to animate graphics and create presentations using PowerPoint . With the photo software's built-in functionality, you can import images from digital cameras or smartphones, resize them, adjust brightness and color, and crop pictures. Interface language is English.
You can find the program website at this link.
Basic rules of landscape design
In any business there are recommendations, rules and laws. The site registration process is no exception. Our task is the harmony of all details and objects. To achieve this harmony, let's get acquainted with some of the laws that guide landscape design specialists.
Triangle Law
This law is: do not use the initial elements equally. Those. the triangular shape in any object should not be equilateral and rectangular. For example, if the flower bed is divided into three zones, do not make the zones the same. Let one be large and two smaller, but also different. As for the color - one is basic, the other two are additional. The shape of the tiles when laying out the path: the main part of the tiles is one shape, the remaining tiles are of two different shapes. It’s like the rule of three – size, color, shape – everything is different.
Law of Three
Law of the Color Wheel
This law will help you decide on the most harmonious combination of colors in the exterior. How does such a law work? It's simple. By dividing the color wheel into two parts, on one side you will see warm shades of colors, and on the other, cold ones. So, it is better to compose individual compositions either in a shade of warm colors or in a shade of cold ones. If you want to add a color element from a cold group to a group of warm colors, or vice versa, then make such an element an accent in the composition.
Selecting plants according to the law of the color wheel
Square law
When deciding where to build a house or plant tall plants or trees, remember that if you place them on the south side, the entire area will be shaded. But it’s best to set up a pool in the south to allow the water to warm up. The law of the square affects the location of buildings and large elements on the site.
In fact, there are many more similar laws, but taking into account at least these three, the landscape design of your site will be designed competently and beautifully.
Punch Home Design - program for home and site design
One of the best sets of programs for planning the interior of a house and designing a landscape design for a garden plot with convenient graphic tools.
The advantages of this software package are:
- high performance and high quality rendering for 2D geometry;
- save and open AutoCAD files (DWG / DXF);
- a huge selection of flowers, shrubs and trees that you can add to your design, there is also the opportunity to add your favorite plants to the database;
- A special feature of the application is the ability to see how the site you have planned will look over time (after 1 year, 5, 10 years);
- suggests preliminary consideration of how shadow will be created in your garden from various objects and plants;
- The ability to not only insert ready-made objects but also create them yourself;
- Compatible with new Sketchup formats and allows you to edit objects in the program;
- Ability to estimate site development.
Although this software is paid, the developers provide a 14-day trial period. A trial version of the garden landscape planner can be downloaded for free on the official website.
Garden Visualizer
Garden Visualiser allows you to put all your landscaping ideas into a beautiful 3D format and visualize it. The drawing can then be edited to achieve the best solution for your patio or garden. The option to add your house to the image also within the tool is a special feature that you will find in this software.
Garden Visualiser allows you to add small objects to a project - fences, walls or hedges, paths, edgings, gazebos, walls. You will find the program at this address.
The generated 3D schematic plan is automatically saved to your online account when you surf online. There is no application in Russian, but a localizer has been developed for it, which is also freely downloadable.
You may be interested in “Design of the courtyard of a private house: ideas, methods of implementation”
Construction, arrangement of garden paths
Some elements of the yard, such as a sandbox, can be built with your own hands. It is worth involving specialists in the production of complex buildings (sauna, gazebo). The photos will help you come up with ideas for landscaping the area.
After installing the buildings, you need to take care of the paths, tropics and plant greenery. First, the main path is laid, then the paths between the buildings. The simplest option is a path; its arrangement does not require the use of tools or materials. A more complex option involves filling it with crushed stone or small pebbles. The best and most expensive option is a path on a solid base.
Plan-a-Garden: free program for planning your garden plot
This application is quite easy to use. You can use the plan in 3D projection, all objects are three-dimensional. The planner has an assistant mode that will select a background scene from ready-made templates, for example a house. You can then drag fences, benches, and gazebos onto the screen to customize the look. Finally, you can shape the surface of your garden area, such as a lawn, brick path, stone feature, patio or gravel path.
Of course, you can include in your garden layout all types of plants that are in the program's library. There are a variety of trees, vines, shrubs, bulbs and other garden crops that are easy to add using drag and drop. Some of these objects can be filtered by type, size and lighting to find the ones you need.
Your project can be saved online so you never lose your plan. When you're completely done, you can save an image of your garden and also export a list of the plants you've added to your area.
The downside of Plan-A-Garden compared to other online garden planners is that it's not as easy to add items and plants to your garden that aren't in the app's library. You're also only given one viewpoint from which to view the garden, so moving things around on screen becomes a bit limited.
The program language is English.
Program website.
Digital elevation model
One of the most important tasks when designing a general plan is the creation of a three-dimensional digital terrain model. Such a model is formed in the form of 3D edges and is constructed using marks and breaklines. Model Studio CS General Plan allows you to quickly and easily build models of both existing and designed terrain.
The following can be used as initial data for design (Fig. 3):
- scanned drawings, according to which you can chip away at the existing terrain and situation;
- point cloud obtained as a result of laser scanning;
- text file with points having XYZ coordinates;
- surface created as 3D edges in any other software;
- a flat drawing in *.dwg format, which contains marks in the form of text and a marker. The program reads the elevation position of marks from the text.
Rice. 3. Initial data for design
Rice.
4. Digital terrain model To edit the model (Fig. 4), operations such as moving edges, changing elevation, moving a node, inserting and deleting points are used. Horizontal lines are created and labeled based on the created surface (Fig. 5).
Rice. 5. Horizontal lines along the existing surface
To create a design surface and calculate the vertical layout (Fig. 6), Model Studio CS General Plan offers convenient tools. Reference points and slope indicators between them are placed on the plan. Points are dynamically linked to grade markers. When the slope, distance or design elevation changes, the selected parameters are recalculated. The calculation of points is carried out at a given slope and distance and the calculation of slopes with access to a given surface.
Rice. 6. Calculation of the vertical layout of the site
Showoff Virtual Designer
This application is a landscape design designer that allows you to upload digital photos of your own garden and add the necessary plants, pots, walkways and walls to them to virtually build your dream plot. You can change projects an unlimited number of times until you find a suitable option. Showoff Virtual Designer not only helps in planning the perfect garden plot, but also has a saving function, and it is possible to share your work with others.
Landscaping
After the construction of the buildings is completed and the paths are paved, you can begin landscaping the area. The dacha plot will look bright and neat if you create an original lawn on the territory.
To make a lawn, level the area, clear it of debris, stones, weeds, fill it with fertilizer, and dig it up. Then the important point is rolling or compacting the earth. For a month, the area is “rested” for natural shrinkage, after which they move on to sowing. The contours of the lawn can be cultivated with evergreens, but so that they do not interfere with mowing the lawn. Rock gardens, flower beds, and mixborders look beautiful on the territory.
