The first step to building the garden of your dreams is to create a plan.
You could draw out your plan with a pen and paper, but using garden planner software is much more accurate and powerful.
A garden planner allows you to create your layout to scale, visualize all of the elements that you want to have in your garden and create a planting schedule.
An added benefit of using a computer program is that you can experiment with different designs before you actually start building.
So in this guide, I'll show you all the benefits of using planning software and all of the options out there, so you can find the one that best fits your needs.
How Can a Garden Planner Help You?
There are 2 basic functions of a garden planner:
- Help you design the physical layout of your garden
- Help you keep track of your planting schedule
Some planners are more skewed towards the layout aspect and there are others that are more for helping you with your planting schedule.
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A few solutions offer a little of both.
But beyond that, let's take a look at the other big benefits of using a garden planner.
Increase Crop Yield
Garden planners can help you plant your crops at the right time of year, but they can also help you understand which plants grow well together.
Many plants form symbiotic relationships with other plants, which will help them grow faster and produce more food.
Sometimes it's hard to get this knowledge online. You might only know this if you've been gardening for decades or know a farmer.
A good garden planner can help you uncover these pearls of wisdom and use them to increase your production.
Maximize Space
Most people have a limited amount of space to grow food. It may be a back yard or a small plot of land.
In this case, you'll want to maximize every centimeter of your growing space and provide enough room for every type of plant, so they have the optimal conditions to grow.
But it can also be challenging if you have a larger plot of land.
Maybe you want to start a food forest.
It can be easy to start planting randomly and end up with a disorganized mess that you'll have to clean up later.
So in either scenario, it helps to plan your layout and crop rotation ahead of time, so you don't have to dig everything up and start all over later.
Give You New Ideas
It's estimated that there are about 300,000 edible plant species in the world.
Could it be possible that you missed a few when designing your garden?
Of course.
Even the most seasoned gardener doesn't know all of the plants out there.
That's where garden planners can help.
They can give you suggestions on plants that will grow in your area, expected yields, and the optimal times for planting them.
Garden planners can also give you physical design ideas that you may not have thought of before.
Everything from a trellis design to a new type of storage shed. You might even get tips on how to keep pests away.
Many planners are built by people or companies that have many years of experience.
Take advantage of this knowledge.
Organize Your Building and Planting Schedules
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, garden planners help you schedule the building and planting of your garden.
Many planners can track when each vegetable should be planted and that will help you figure out what to tackle first, instead of being overwhelmed by thinking that you have to do everything at once.
Knowing what to plant first can also help you when you're building your garden structures such as sheds, raised beds and trellises.
Again, instead of having to build everything at once, you can build one thing at a time, then plant the vegetables associated with that structure.
Once that's done, you can move on to the next project.
Now that you know what's possible with garden planners, let's look a the different solutions that are out there.
Free Online Garden Planners
If you don't need anything fancy, a free garden planner is perfect.
There are different types of free planners, so try out a few different ones to find out what's most useful to you.
Although these planners are currently free at the time this was written, they may moved to a paid model, so don't be surprised if they are now paid.
We will update this list as often as possible.
Gardena myGarden
If you want an easy to use garden layout designer, then myGarden is a fantastic solution.
The online software is intuitive and allows you to add specific plants, buildings and ground cover and even vehicles.
You design your garden from a bird's eye view, which removes the complexity of having to render complex 3D images. This speeds up the program and makes it easier to use.
Since this is only a layout designer, there are no planting schedules and only a limited number of plants available.
However, Gardena does give you other benefits like example gardens to spark ideas, and the ability to plan the layout of your sprinkler system.
All of the elements in the designer can be scaled to exact measurements and you can share and save your plan.
I really like the Gardena myGarden app.
It's simple and gives you all of the basic functions you would need to create a garden layout.
Planner5D – Free Garden Planner
The 3D Garden Planner by Planner5D is an amazing piece of online software.
It allows you to design and generate both 2D and 3D renderings of your dream garden.
Since this is strictly a layout planner, it won't help you with planting schedules.
But the ability to turn your designs into 3d images is extremely useful because you can see your garden from all angles.
Some ideas that may look good in a 2D drawing might look totally different in a 3D mockup.
You can use the software for free, but it comes with a limited number of elements that you can add to your garden plan.
That might be good enough for some people.
But if you want access to their entire library of design items, you have to pay a monthly fee.
It's pretty inexpensive and totally worth the price, in my opinion.
Marshalls Garden Visualizer
This garden planner is built for layout design and not planting schedules.
Marshalls sells building supplies, so this tool is naturally built to help people envision how they would use Marshalls' products.
The planner is totally free, with no upsells or trial periods.
A downside is that it isn't the easiest tool to use. But after a little practice, you'll get the hang of it.
Another downside is that there aren't very many options in terms of elements that you can add to your mockup.
There are a few generic plants and a couple of buildings, but not much in the way of specific structures.
However, there are quite a few options when it comes to pathways, walls and fencing.
So if you're looking for a totally free tool that will give you a good general idea of how you want your garden to look, then this is a solid option.
Vegetable Growing Cheat Sheet
This simple and free guide will help you figure out how and when to plant common vegetables, based on where you live.
It's not an exhaustive list, but the biggest benefit is that it's simple.
You get a list of the most common vegetables and a schedule of when is the best time to plant them.
The cheat sheet also has useful information on how much sun each plant needs, minimum spacing between plants, days to maturation and more.
If you don't want to mess with complex software programs, then this solution is a fantastic place to start.
Paid Online Garden Planners
Paid garden planners usually give you more features and useful information than free planners.
Some of them are also very inexpensive and have free trials.
So compare the features and figure out what you need.
Garden Planner
The greatest strength of the Garden Planner is in its simplicity and depth of information.
As with most garden planners, this software allows you to create a simple layout of your garden and add some basic structures.
Once you have the layout of your garden, Garden Planner helps you figure out which vegetables to plant and when to plant them.
They also provide tutorials (with videos) on how to plant and care for your garden.
You'll also get a garden journal, plant reminders by email, and crop rotation warnings.
Garden Planner also has a community of gardeners that you can tap into to get ideas, tips and answers to your questions.
This planner is paid, but there is a free trial.
After the trial, the subscription is not very expensive.
Univision 3D Landscape Creator
The UVision 3D Landscape Creator by Unilock is a comprehensive design tool that's primarily built for professional designers and architects.
However, it can also be used by individuals who want design their own projects.
This software creates truly stunning mockups and has an object library of over 15,000 items.
You can even import sketch up models into the program for more realistic renderings.
It's easy to use and just might be what you're looking for.
SmartDraw
SmartDraw helps you design simple, bird's eye view garden plans.
This intuitive program makes it easy to collaborate with a team and allows you to create fairly complex garden layouts.
There are no planting plans in this software, it's strictly for layouts.
Realtime Landscaping Architect
This software is more for home landscape design, but if you want very detailed renderings, this is a great option.
The mockups that this program creates are very realistic.
You can also add people, buildings, vehicles and much more.
Designs can be presented in 3D, 2D or CAD formats. You can even create video presentations of your landscape design.
A really cool feature is that you can take a photo with your smartphone and import it into the program.
From there, you can add landscaping elements for a realistic mockup of what your property would look like.
Check out Realtime Landscaping Architect here.
Garden Planner
This app is different from the one above.
Even though they have the same name, this Garden Planner has very different functionality that the one previously mentioned.
One big benefit if this software is that you only pay once.
This one-time payment gives you access to over 1,700 objects that you can include in your garden plan, such as buildings, plants and more.
The layout tool is simple and you can create your drawings to scale.
A great feature in this app is that you can create a 3D rendering of your garden after you're done.
There is no planting schedule functionality or plant care information in this app.
But if you just want an inexpensive garden layout designer, this is a great option.
Smart Gardener
Smart Gardener helps you plan your planting schedule and gives you information on over 3,000 species of plants.
Once you pick the vegetables that you want to grow and your garden layout, the app gives you an optimized garden plan that will help you get started quickly.
It also provides a To Do List and a journal where you can track all aspects of your garden.
You can also upload pictures of your garden in your journal so can remember the little tips and tricks that worked this year.
A very useful feature of this software is that you can see notes from gardeners on the plants that you're growing.
VegPlotter
VegPlotter is a good combination of layout designer and planting scheduler.
The simple drag and drop interface of the planner allows you to create your garden's layout.
But where VegPlanner really shines is in its ability to help you schedule all aspects of your vegetable garden. This ranges from when to sow your seeds to when to put up your plant supports.
This app also tells you which plants grow well together and when you might have crop rotation conflicts.
To see a list of plants that they have information on, go here.
VegPlotter also gives you the ability to keep a journal about your garden. You can save pictures to save seed planting instructions or to document your progress.
You can use this app on both desktop and mobile.
Final Thoughts
Learning how to use these tools is the first step to building your dream garden.
When you have exact measurements, you'll be able to accurately calculate your materials cost and estimate how much food your garden will produce.
It may take a little time to get the hang of these programs, but it's time well spent.
Get started right now, it's fun!
