I’ve had the good fortune of having nice landscaping and gardens much of my life. As most kids do, I took it for granted.

My parents were avid gardeners and so our yards always looked great. After years living in apartments, we moved into a larger home with a good-sized yard. The real bonus is it was spectacularly landscaped by previous owners to our benefit. All we need to do is maintain it.

However, if faced with landscaping a yard, I’d seriously consider premium software to help organize my thoughts and put together a blueprint. I think software is only really necessary for a larger landscaping project with multiple gardens. The problem with software is it takes a while to learn it and make it work for you. But, once you get going with it, relax and have some fun, it can be a very powerful design tool, whether for interior design or outside your home for landscape and/or garden design. I’m a software nut.

I enjoy learning it and using it. Hence we’ve published and updated this terrific. While I’m all about free, I think if you’re going to invest time into creating landscape designs with software, you’re better off buying the premium software. While there are some awesome, not so much with garden and landscape design unfortunately.

Landscape Design Software for Apple OS X and Microsoft Windows The Landscape & Garden solution for ConceptDraw DIAGRAM includes a wide collection of templates and samples to help you draw any landscape-related diagrams and schemas as quickly as possible. Garden Planner. Features and functions: Garden Planner is amazing free garden design software for Mac which has an easy to use and simple interface. It is free of cost and one of the best available.

Benefits of using software to design gardens and landscaping Using software, even rudimentary software, helps you establish a concrete plan for your gardens and landscaping. It can also help you to think through what you want. It’s not easy visualizing landscaping all at once, but when sketched out, not only will you have a better chance of remembering every detail (because it’s right there for you), but you’ll also have a detailed plan from which to create your outdoor masterpiece.

=> FYI: if you’re looking for (although many of the options below include deck design modules as well). Table of Contents • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • A. Free Options Unfortunately the following free options are awesome, but if you’re on a budget and just want to get a taste of using landscaping software, give some of the following a try. App store for mac. If you like software for designing your yard, then you’ll definitely want to check out the premium versions below. They aren’t terrible expensive and may just help you put together the perfect yard.

Also, I don’t recommend any one particular option below. Our aim is to provide a comprehensive list of your options.

It’s pretty easy and fast to kick the tires so you can figure out which one to use. Home Outside (Freemium app) The is available as an app on. It’s free to download and to use, but you must pay to download your plans. Some people criticize it because you need to pay at some point, but I think it wouldn’t be as good as it is if you didn’t have to pay. The plus side is you can see if you can use it to get the right plan for you. If you don’t, at least you’re not out of pocket unlike other design software that forces you to buy up front.

Gardena (Free) Gardena is a website that sells all types of landscaping products for water management (hoses, sprinklers, etc.), lawn care (lawnmowers), tree and shrub cae (hedge trimmers, shears, etc.) and other garden care tools. Their free online software (available at; it’s not an app) is a way to get you interested in their products. I like this arrangement because they can afford to invest in decent free landscaping software. In other words, they aren’t looking to profit from the software itself; instead the software is a way to attract people to their site and promote various products. It’s a win/win between Gardena and us consumers looking for free design tools.

Below is a series of screenshots we took using the software. You’ll see it’s fairly intuitive and offers some good options. Purchase price in real estate.