Hey everyone! I'm on the hunt for some software to help me plan my garden layout. I've previously used Blender and SketchUp for interior design, but I'm hoping to find something that lets me drag and drop elements easily without spending ages modeling different assets. Ideally, I'm looking for freeware or Creative Commons options, but I'm also open to paying for something worthwhile that suits a home user.
5 Answers
You know, I’ve actually used spreadsheets for this before! It’s pretty straightforward. You can outline the shape of your garden beds and use color-coded cells for different plants. Plus, you can duplicate the sheet for seasonal changes to see how everything evolves throughout the year.
If you're on a Mac, I definitely recommend trying Graphic. It’s super simple and perfect for making scale drawings of your garden layout.
Have you explored using the SketchUp Warehouse? They used to have a lot of free 3D objects you could drop into your gardens. I think they offer a hundred free ones now and may have subscriptions for more. But, honestly, the pricing for personal licenses on many of these software tools is getting out of hand, with ongoing costs for features that used to be included for free.
For 2D planning, Inkscape is a fantastic free option. You can create a scaled grid and draft your layout on that. If you're interested in 3D visualization, consider Twinmotion or similar software. It has a user-friendly library with adjustable objects, and you can manipulate settings for things like light and shadow, which is great for planning visuals, even if you're not focusing solely on plant spacing.
I’ve been investigating some options too. I found this [tutorial](https://rhinolands.com/learn/video-tutorial/) for Rhino, which is pricey but offers a 60-day free trial. It supposedly comes with a whopping 8,000 plant assets! I’m planning to give it a go this weekend.
I did a short garden design course, and SketchUp was our go-to tool. It has a huge library of objects, and honestly, I never had to model anything myself. I designed plenty of gardens with it, both big and small!
That's clever! I stretch the cells into squares, designating each cell to represent either 25cm or 50cm, depending on how I want my view to look.