Every homeowner wants the perfect landscape, but planning and designing it is no walk in the park.
It becomes especially hard to visualize exactly what your home will look like once the project is complete, and that’s primarily because landscaping involves changing seasons, or simply, time.
What your plants look like will be very different in the next season, and so, the design process calls for a seasoned eye.
But hiring a professional landscape consultant is a huge financial burden for many, especially those on a budget.
Maybe you plan to utilize a professional for the landscaping work, but want to keep the budget under control during the initial stages. Well, this is where landscaping software and apps come in handy.
The Many Advantages of Landscaping Design Software
Landscape or property design software is a solution that every homeowner should consider.
It gives you an excellent opportunity to see what you wish to achieve in your landscaping setting and layout in advance.
Here are a few other benefits of the same:
Brings out Your Creativity
Landscape design apps encourage you to become creative.
Whether you have always wanted a nice front garden with ornamental trees or a water feature on your backyard, these applications enable you to create the outdoor space of your dreams.
If you are uncertain regarding what you want, these programs can also help you explore new ideas. For instance, if you’ve come across a yard design on a magazine, you can see whether or not it can work on your space with the help of an app.
Affordable
Most people tend to assume that landscaping apps and programs are expensive.
While this might be the case for high-end programs made for landscaping pros, there are many options that come at a lower price. With the numerous options available out there, you will certainly come across one that meets your needs and budget.
Easy to Use
As DIY landscaping continues to rise in popularity, more landscaping, outdoor and gardening vendors have started creating easy to implement products meant for the novice and DIY enthusiasts.
This includes landscaping programs. All you need as basic computer knowledge to use these user-friendly apps.
Ready-Made Landscape Designs
Already laid out design templates is another appealing feature of landscaping software.
This is extremely helpful when you do not know where to start. Most apps have garden templates and easy to follow suggestions on building small outdoor features and planting vegetation.
There are many ideas which you can use straight from the program or tweak in accordance with your needs or preference.
Now that we know it’s possible to design your own landscape and the benefits that come with landscape design software, you might be wondering, which is the best program or app for the job? Well, you are spoilt for choice in this regard, and we have listed some of the best apps for the job.
Top Landscaping Design Apps
IScape
This is perhaps the most popular landscape design app that comes for free.
The program uses an iPad or iPhone to garner data about your space, and through AR, it overlays existing features with new ones. This makes it excellent if you have purchased a new home and want to plan how the yard can be redeveloped.
The beauty of iScape is that you can walk around with your smartphone and see what the new outdoor space will look like in varying angles and adjust if some feature blocks another.
The app has a wide array of trees, fences, plants, and other garden features selection, all of which you can easily drop in your virtual outdoor space. You can even copy and mirror those elements in order to hasten the process.
iScape is by no means a CAD tool that can create exact models, but it gives you a great platform for trying out many options and getting feedback for elements that work and those that do not.
The only downside is that the app is only available for Apple users, and it does not export designs.
Houzz
This is another popular free landscape design website and app.
It’s an excellent resource for finding contractors and designing your dream home, both indoors and outdoors.
Houzz might be mostly used for interior decor, but it features an extensive outdoor design and decoration section that can help you design your dream yard.
The app features verified reviews and millions of high-resolution pictures to give you great ideas for your landscape design.
You can also use it to find home improvement professionals and repair contractors.
In addition to these features, the company’s editorial and design team keep you up to date with emerging trends in the industry in the form of press releases, newsletters, and blog posts.
PRO Landscape Home
This app takes an interesting approach to landscape, as it begins with you using your device to take photos of the area you intend to redevelop. Using the images as the starting point, furniture, mulch, grass, plants, etc., can be inserted into the scene.
Pro Landscape Home is an app that’s free but funded through in-app purchases. This means that you need to pay for the extended library of pavers, plants, etc.
The app also features adverts that can direct you to local garden vendors, service providers, and the like.
It’s a very simple and basic product whose main aim is to explore landscaping ideas. So, if you want to create detailed plans and instructions for your contractor, this is probably not the tool.
VR Gardens- 3D Design Planner
Thanks to VR Gardens, you can easily bring your dream yard design to life.
This application is available on Google Play Store, which is an intuitive 3D design plan that allows you to experiment with hundreds of varying flowers, plants, and structures.
The best thing about this application is that when you are done with the design, you can take a mind-blowing virtual reality tour of your garden on the phone. This allows you to have a deeper look at what your yard would look like in real life.
Of course, there are numerous other apps and programs you can try, but these prove to be the best when it comes to landscape design planning.
