free landscape design?

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The Mermaid Queen

The Mermaid Queen

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Mar 28, 2007
2,515
Northern KY
Anyone know of some good FREE landscape design software? Don't need anything REALLY fancy, just basic.... general dimensions, house, deck/patio/hardscape, beds, some plants and trees. ((Don't even need pool planning (again... :( ) I swear I'm gonna get a plastic pool on the deck, and dd looks like she is about to die every time I mention that!! :roll: ))

I would like to make a plan, and then gradually work on it, as opposed to going into home depot and ooooo, plants are on sale, and buying too many and just putting them in the ground willy-nilly, or worse, letting them die in the pot while trying to decide where to plant them!!

TIA!
 
Honestly the best way I've done this is to sketch on a piece of paper you house and lot. Then take it to a local nursery and work with the staff there to come up with a plan that you can work to. I also find that they have a more appropriate supply of plants than the big stores. For example, Home Depot will sell me a dogwood tree, in Texas? The local nursery would never do that.

For software you may take a look at Google Sketchup:

http://sketchup.google.com/

hope this helps,
 
Thanks! Free is the operative word here... going to a nursery sounds a lot like "We will be glad to draw you up some plans for only $449.95..."

And I also realize about HD or other mega marts that sell any old plants, whether they will live in your area or not! And mislabeled plants... :roll:
 
Not free, but close...I used a online version called "pland3d", I used it for our backyard, front yard, kitchen, etc. Maybe not exactly what you are looking for but you never know. I believe it is $15.95 for one month, at the time, I signed up for the year package as I knew how much work I had ahead. Below it the link to their website, along with a link to mine that has pictures of the plan3d drawings, just scroll down a few images and you will see the drawings.

http://www.plan3d.com/pages/home.aspx

http://web.mac.com/gunkel04/Site1/Bar.html


Greg
 
I use the old graph paper, you know, the kind from 8th grade. I use 2 squares=1foot.
My whole side yard garden (12'x54') is done on pages taped
together.
To me it's just faster than messing with the computer.
 
Thanks everyone! After messing around with sketchup, I decided that paper and pencil would indeed be better! All I ever managed to do with sketchup was make 2-dimensional shapes. Too high a learning curve for what I needed to accomplish!!
 

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