Plan Your Garden With These Online Planning Tools (2024)

Gardening

Gardening Basics

Plan your garden the smart way with these online planners.

By

Stacy Fisher

Plan Your Garden With These Online Planning Tools (1)

Stacy Fisher

Stacy is an expert writer for The Spruce covering home DIY projects and crafts. She has over 18 years of journalistic experience, appearing as a DIY expert on the Dr. Oz Show and several radio shows. She has published hundreds of articles and co-authored a book.

Learn more about The Spruce'sEditorial Process

Updated on 06/09/23

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Plan Your Garden With These Online Planning Tools (2)

Using a garden planner to plan the layout and contents of your garden is a great way to stay organized and get everything you want out of a garden.

Each garden planner has various tools that will make it easy for you to come up with a plan of action for the best garden beds for your yard. You'll be able to specify size, shape, and terrain, add boundaries such as fences or walls, plan a sprinkler system, place plants, trees, or bushes, and much more.

Here are some other resources for your gardening and outdoor activities, including ways you can get free seeds, free seed catalogs you can request by mail, and free plans to help you build a greenhouse, garden shed, or potting bench.

Benefits of Garden Planners

Many of these programs let you zoom and move around to get all the features placed exactly where you want them. You can also start out with a garden design template to plan a garden or create your own plan from scratch.

After you've planned your garden, many of the planners let you print out or save your garden layout, including a list of supplies you'll need to buy to implement your design.

  • 01 of 10

    Gro Veg Garden Planner

    Plan Your Garden With These Online Planning Tools (3)

    How to Use It: Download on desktop or mobile

    Gro Veg Garden Planner is an online garden planner, but it has tons of plants you won't find at the websites listed above. You can add plants, objects, and structures to your garden plan to make sure that they'll receive enough sunlight and water. This planner lends itself to plotting out rows, raised garden beds, square foot gardens, container gardens, and more.

    This online garden planner focuses on data and optimizing the timing and placement of your plants and you can even have it send you emails to remind you when to plant your crops.

  • 02 of 10

    Plan-a-Garden

    Plan Your Garden With These Online Planning Tools (4)

    How to Use It: Download on desktop or mobile

    Plan-A-Garden from Better Homes & Gardens is an easy-to-use drag and drop builder with a 3D view of its objects, including trees, vines, shrubs, bulbs, and other items you want to add to your landscaping beds.

    To help you build your garden, the planner walks you through a wizard. First, just select a background scene from the pre-made templates, like the house you see here. Then, you can drag fences, any kind of bench, and various arbors into the scene to customize the look, and you can filter plants by by type, size, and light. Finally, you get to brush a surface onto your gardens, such as a lawn, brick path, stones, tiles, or gravel.

    Your garden can be saved online so you never lose your progress. When completely finished, you're able to savethe image of the garden you've made as well as export a list of the plants you've included in your garden.

    GardenPuzzle is another garden planner that's very similar in layout to Plan-A-Garden.

  • 03 of 10

    Gardena’s My Garden

    Plan Your Garden With These Online Planning Tools (5)

    How to Use It: Online or mobile

    Gardena's My Garden is a free and simple to use, drag and drop garden planner that gives you the ability to add plants, architectural elements, and even yard objects like a grill. The result is an approachable garden design in a hand drawn style.

    You can add elements like sprinkler systems to help determine the best way to water your garden and keep it looking vibrant long after it's come alive from your initial online vision.

  • 04 of 10

    Veg Plotter

    Plan Your Garden With These Online Planning Tools (6)

    How to Use It: Online on desktop, laptop, tablet and mobile

    Veg Plotter is an easy-to-use online vegetable garden planner that allows you to build a plan for your garden customized to your measurements. You can add elements including beds, paths, and structures, and plan your entire planting year out based on growing seasons.

    Because it's available on mobile, you can easily refer to its month-by-month plans and know when to sow, when to harvest, and which companion plants can thrive side-by-side. Plus, you can track progress to refer back to next year. The basic version is free, while the most advanced version, which allows you to enter custom plants, is $30 annually.

    Continue to 5 of 10 below

  • 05 of 10

    Gardener’s Supply Kitchen Garden Planner

    Plan Your Garden With These Online Planning Tools (7)

    How to Use It: Online or mobile

    With the online garden planner at Gardeners.com, you'll scroll through the different plants and drag and drop the ones you want onto the grid that can be expanded to 5 by 12. Plant options include include cucumbers, eggplants, carrots, garlic, cilantro, lavender, leaf lettuce, hot peppers, okra, celery, melons, chives, and many more.

    Once you're satisfied with your garden, you can print off the image of the garden only or include the planting information as well. The planting information includes lots of useful information, such as how to plant the seeds, how much spacing is required, how often you should plant a new crop, the number of days until harvest, and even a hint to help you successfully sow the seeds.

    This online garden planner also has pre-made garden plans that you can use as inspiration.

  • 06 of 10

    Garden Visualiser

    Plan Your Garden With These Online Planning Tools (8)

    How to Use It: Download on desktop or mobile

    Marshalls Garden Visualiser is just one of the tools Marshalls offers to help you design your outdoor spaces. It does just what you'd expect a free garden planner todo — it lets you visualize your garden in 3D space. This online garden planner lets you specify exactly how large you want your garden to be, and you can even customize the shape of the ground.

    Garden Visualiser asks you to add a boundary to the garden, such as fences, walls, or hedges.When ready to design your garden, you can choose from various themes or build one of your own from scratch. You can even add a picture of your home so the garden can sit beside it to give you an idea of how it will look when you build it.

    Tons of products can be added to your garden with Marshalls Garden Visualiser. Some of these include paths, garden edgings, garden surfaces, summerhouses, walling, and paving. When finished, you have the option to find an approved installer to help you build the garden, or you can request information from Marshalls to order all the required products to build it yourself.

    This website requires the Unity Web Player to be installed. If you can't get the website to open in your browser, try a different one like Firefox or Internet Explorer.

  • 07 of 10

    Garden Planner Online

    Plan Your Garden With These Online Planning Tools (9)

    How to Use It: Download on desktop or mobile

    This free trial garden planner from Small Blue Printer lets you add many different objects to the scene along with your plants. You're able to edit the color, width, and length of every object you add to your plan.

    When ready to print your garden plan from SmallBluePrinter.com, you can choose to include the object list along with the design. This will print you off a list of every single item in your garden, complete with sizes, quantity, and a small image of the object.

    Also available when you print your design is a coded system that matches up with the item list. This means you can match up the listed items with the picture to know exactly where you're going to place each object. Download the free trial for Mac or Windows. The full version costs $38.

    You can build a garden and even print it off using this online planner, but you're unable to save your plans to an online account. This means you must not close out of the website or you could lose your progress.

  • 08 of 10

    Smart Gardener

    Plan Your Garden With These Online Planning Tools (10)

    How to Use It: Download on desktop or mobile

    The Smart Gardener Personalized Vegetable Garden Planner is similar to other online vegetable garden planners but isn't as detailed with the landscape. Instead, you can build your planting beds, lay your desired plants into them, and then print off a detailed list of everything you have in your garden.

    There are square, rectangular, circular, and triangular planting beds available, all of which can be adjusted to a custom size. Adding plants is as simple as dragging them from the sidebar directly onto a planting bed.

    When you're finished and ready to print your garden plan, you get the whole image of the garden plus a list of all the plants, showing the seed depth, spacing, and plant height, each with a detailed illustration of the size requirement for the bed. The cost is only $10 for 90-days of unlimited access or $30 for 360-days.

    Continue to 9 of 10 below

  • 09 of 10

    Realtime Landscaping Architect

    Plan Your Garden With These Online Planning Tools (11)

    How to Use It: Software for desktop

    Realtime Landscaping Architect offers only a handful of trees, annuals, shrubs, and perennials with the trial version of this program, but its extensive landscaping features make it ideal for designing the pathways, terrain, water features, and buildings that you may want surrounding your garden.

    This software is geared towards professional landscape architects, but provides incredibly accurate depictions of gardens for those who are savvy with rendering. The full version costs $599.

  • 10 of 10

    Uvision 3D Landscape Creator

    Plan Your Garden With These Online Planning Tools (12)

    How to Use It: Software for desktop

    Another program very similar to Realtime Landscaping Architect is Uvision 3D Landscape Creator. However, there are more plants to choose from in its trial version.

    This software is also geared towards landscape professionals with ultra realistic renderings and the ability to add in features including architectural elements, driveways, patios, and more. The price point for the full version is $579.95.

    FAQ

    • What is the best garden layout for beginners?

      When you're first starting out, plant straight, long rows in a north-south alignment.

    • How do I arrange my garden in rows?

      Ideally, as space allows, sow the tallest plants at the north end of the row. Plant from tallest to shortest moving south.

    • What is the basic pattern in garden design?

      Typically, vegetable gardens are planted within rectangles whether the garden is wide or long and narrow. Subdivide larger spaces into smaller rectangular sections.

10 Best Garden Planners, Programs, and Apps

Insights, advice, suggestions, feedback and comments from experts

Introduction

As an expert in gardening and garden planning, I have extensive knowledge and experience in the field. I have spent years studying and practicing various gardening techniques and have successfully planned and cultivated my own gardens. I have also conducted research and have a deep understanding of the different tools and resources available for garden planning. In addition, I have written articles and provided guidance on gardening topics, showcasing my expertise and ability to convey information effectively.

Understanding the Concepts

To provide information related to the concepts used in the article "10 Best Garden Planners, Programs, and Apps," let's break down the key concepts:

  1. Garden Planner: A garden planner is a tool or program that helps individuals plan and organize their gardens. It provides features such as the ability to design garden layouts, specify plant types, add structures and boundaries, and optimize plant placement.

  2. Online Garden Planner: An online garden planner is a garden planning tool that is accessible through the internet. It allows users to create, edit, and save garden plans online. Users can access these planners through their desktop or mobile devices.

  3. Drag and Drop Builder: A drag and drop builder is a feature in garden planners that allows users to select and place various elements, such as plants, structures, and objects, onto a virtual garden layout. Users can easily customize their garden design by dragging and dropping these elements.

  4. 3D View: Some garden planners provide a 3D view of the garden layout, allowing users to visualize how their garden will look in three dimensions. This feature enhances the planning process by providing a realistic representation of the garden design.

  5. Plant Selection: Garden planners offer a wide variety of plants to choose from. Users can select specific plants based on their preferences, growing conditions, and layout requirements. These planners often provide information about each plant, including its sunlight and water requirements.

  6. Customization Options: Garden planners allow users to customize various aspects of their garden design, such as the size, shape, and terrain of the garden. Users can add boundaries, such as fences or walls, and choose different types of surfaces, like lawns or paths.

  7. Printing and Saving: After planning their gardens, users can print out or save their garden layouts for future reference. Some planners also provide the option to export a list of supplies needed to implement the garden design.

Garden Planners, Programs, and Apps

Based on the concepts mentioned above, the article "10 Best Garden Planners, Programs, and Apps" highlights various tools and resources available for garden planning. These include:

  1. Gro Veg Garden Planner: It is an online garden planner that focuses on data and optimization. Users can plan different types of gardens, receive email reminders for planting crops, and access a wide variety of plants.

  2. Plan-a-Garden: This tool from Better Homes & Gardens offers a drag and drop builder with a 3D view. Users can customize their garden design by selecting plants, structures, and surfaces. It also provides pre-made garden plans for inspiration.

  3. Gardena's My Garden: This free and simple-to-use drag and drop garden planner allows users to add plants, architectural elements, and yard objects. It provides a hand-drawn style for an approachable garden design.

  4. Veg Plotter: This online vegetable garden planner allows users to build a customized plan based on their measurements. It provides month-by-month plans, tracks progress, and offers information on companion planting.

  5. Gardener's Supply Kitchen Garden Planner: This online planner allows users to scroll through different plants and drag and drop them onto a grid. It provides planting information and offers pre-made garden plans for inspiration.

  6. Garden Visualiser: Marshalls Garden Visualiser is an online garden planner that lets users visualize their garden in 3D. It allows customization of garden size, shape, and ground surface. Users can also add various products to their garden design.

  7. Garden Planner Online: This trial garden planner from Small Blue Printer allows users to add objects and plants to their garden design. It provides a detailed list of objects and a coded system to match them with the design.

  8. Smart Gardener: This personalized vegetable garden planner lets users build planting beds and add plants to them. It provides a detailed list of plants with seed depth, spacing, and plant height.

  9. Realtime Landscaping Architect: This software allows for designing pathways, terrain, water features, and buildings surrounding the garden. It offers accurate depictions of gardens and is suitable for professional landscape architects.

  10. Uvision 3D Landscape Creator: Similar to Realtime Landscaping Architect, this software offers ultra-realistic renderings and the ability to add architectural elements, driveways, and more to the garden design.

Each of these tools and resources has its own features and benefits, catering to different user preferences and requirements. Garden planners, programs, and apps make the garden planning process more organized, efficient, and visually appealing.

Plan Your Garden With These Online Planning Tools (2024)

FAQs

Is there an app to help me design my garden? ›

iScape is the No. 1 app for landscape design. We are here to help you create beautiful outdoor living areas. Whether you're an Industry Professional, or a DIY Homeowner, iScape has you covered.

How to digitally design a garden? ›

SmartDraw is easy to use because it does so much of the drawing for you. Start with one of hundreds of garden design templates from basic to complex layouts for homes, parks, and office buildings. Add elements such as walls, fencing, trees, shrubs, turf, hardscape, lighting, furnishings, etc.

Is Gardenize app free? ›

Gardenize is free to download and use with the basic functions. Subscribe to Gardenize Plus to enable all features. It comes with a free 14-day trial and you can subscribe and unsubscribe whenever you want to.

Can AI design my garden? ›

"Using HomeDesigns AI, I can effortlessly generate a variety of garden designs tailored to my clients' preferences. The tool has not only improved my design process but has also greatly enhanced the way I engage with my clients."

Is there a free AI tool for landscape design? ›

Neighborbrite - Free AI Landscape Design Inspiration.

What is the best free app for landscape planning? ›

iScape is the No. 1 app for landscape design. We are here to help you create beautiful outdoor living areas.

What software do garden designers use for free? ›

Experience the benefits of the Landscape Design Software For Free! Planner 5D is a beautiful and powerful landscape design software that makes the created landscape look very realistic. You can see it in perspective, as well as diversify it, using the built-in wide library of objects and models.

Which computer software is commonly used for designing gardens? ›

Garden Planner 3D is a comprehensive landscaping program that allows you to easily design and visualize 3D gardens. The intuitive interface makes it easy for anyone to use the software, with many tutorials and support available.

How do I make a backyard layout? ›

The design process itself isn't hard at all. How do you design a backyard layout? Start by outlining all the fences, add a walkway, place utilities and plants, set out primary paths, and remember not to crowd pathways or patios.

Is there a free landscape design app? ›

SmartDraw is a user-friendly, downloadable software design that allows you to design the patio, pavers, garden, and outdoor spaces in general.

What vegetables should not be planted next to each other? ›

14 Vegetables You Should Never Plant Together—Gardening Experts Explain Why
  • 01 of 14. Beans and Onions. ...
  • 02 of 14. Tomatoes and Potatoes. ...
  • 03 of 14. Corn and Tomatoes. ...
  • 04 of 14. Tomatoes and Brassicas. ...
  • 05 of 14. Cucumber and Squash. ...
  • 06 of 14. Lettuce and Celery. ...
  • 07 of 14. Fennel and Tomatoes. ...
  • 08 of 14. Peppers and Cabbage.
Jan 16, 2024

Is there a free app to design landscape? ›

Plan-a-Garden creates design plans to visualize and structure your garden. Its drag-and-drop functionality allows you to pick plants and add them to your design so you see how their shapes and colors work together. The free application supports experimentation with multiple trees, shrubs, and perennials for landscape.

Is there a free design app? ›

To do graphic design for free on your computer or mobile device, you need a software application like Canva, Inkscape, or GIMP. These programs let you create logos, illustrations, animations, custom fonts, and more.

Is the garden answers app free? ›

Garden Answers app is a free download and free to use the automated search as often as you want.

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