Garden Design Software

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Q: My mom and I have both been long time subscribers and love your magazine. We have recently taken on the huge project of re-doing parts of our garden. I’m looking for advice on any design programs for the computer, that will allow us to play around and plan it. With any luck, we’ll come up with a design that we like before we relocate every earthworm on our five acres. Were both very visual, and artistic, but we need to see the design, physically, or as close to what it will be that we can. We live on Vancouver Island, just north of half way if that helps narrow down the options. Any suggestions that you could provide would be much appreciated.

You ask a very good question, albeit a tough one or so it seems. Personally, I usually sketch out my garden plans the old-fashioned way, with pencil and graph paper, often revising dozens of times before I feel like I’ve got it right. Not having personal experience with landscaping software, I’ve checked with the B.C. Landscape & Nursery Association. Annika Ingram reports that they are familiar with Dynascape & VectorWorks, but that these programs are meant for landscape designers and are expensive and not user friendly. She suggests you do a search for “Landscape Design
Software,” as this will bring up several possibilities.