Planning

I was just wondering how people planned what they were going to do?
I personally prefer the old method of sitting outside with an A3 sketch book and sketching a nice plan.
However since I am not the greatest of drawers this can be confusing so I was wandering if people used any type of PC software?
Or any other methods that people have come up with

 

Help you sound terribly organised but sure someone (not me) will be able to advise you on some software.I have in the past planned my very large herbaceous borders on paper....hmmm not very successful. Now I plant to eye and that seems to work much better. The only advice I could give you re design is what looks great on paper doesn't always allow for ease of maintenance. My garden which is about 2 acres was evidently redesigned in the early 70s by an architect who could draw very pretty pictures but was quite obviously clueless about gardening! It's taken me about 7 years to get rid of very awkward areas which no doubt were all the rage at the likes of Chelsea back then and fine if you have a squad of gardeners, not if your are lone, rapidly ageing old bag like me!

 

I'm a dreadful artist - can't even draw "Hangman" So, it is graph paper for me. One sheet represents my garden. Then, from other sheets I draw and cut relative shapes and pop them on the garden sheet. At least this way I am able to move the shapes around to see which I like the best.

I have tried using PC software but that was just a disaster (for me!)

 

I'm a software user ... similar to using a Word Processor, or Spreadsheet, using CAD makes it very easy to rub-out-and-try-again, and you can keep as many previous iterations as you like, email them to friends for comment, print off a new copy when it gets grubby outside, etc.

Google Sketchup is free (although I don't happen to like the way it works, as I was initially learnt using traditional CAD software that has a different methodology, but Sketchup has a huge following).

I use Punch! which is designed for house & garden design. Its a USA product, so the plants it offers are not really suitable for over-here, but you can put use those and then see how it will grow over the next 10 years etc. including doing a "fly by" so that you can see how it will look walking through house and/or garden

But it rather depends whether you are a computer-person, or not. You can spend hours and hours fiddling with computers and not get a single useful element built! Me: I just use the computer as a tool, alongside sapde, form and hoe - and spreadsheets with lists of plants growing, lists of wishes with height/colour/season etc, lists of plants to be planted next spring with location, requirements, and so on ...

... and a NotePad file in which I just jot anything that occurs to me (including anything transcribed from a piece of paper used when not near my computer ...). That has links to GC threads and pictures of things I liked, jobs that need to be done, all sorts ...

There's a guy on the HTUK forums who does 3D design and has some YouTubes of his planned gardens. If you can start off both videos at once (and your screen is tall enough!) you will be able to see his walk through simultaneously by day and by night
http://www.hardytropicals.co.uk/forum/styles/etechgreen/imageset/icon_topic_newest.gif

 

Here's a YouTube of some landscaping software. Not recommending it per se (its being touted for landscaping professionals to preview a design to their clients), but it might give you an idea of what is doable with the software

 

I'd recommend using something that uses layers. Photoshop, or GIMP which is free software. That way you can move things around and re-size them.
I also use old fashioned pen and paper for notes and sketches.

 

to all of you that think in such a structured and logical way. Me? I just fall in love with a plant and stuff it in my already bulging at the seams borders. Two large shrubs are coming out this Winter - lost their youth and eyecatching appeal. I am already replacing them in my mind with things I have growing on in pots, on the patio.

 

Oh yeah, I do that too!! but for an initial design, in particular the hard landscaping, I need some "design" stuff ... measurements, calculations for the amount of materials I want to buy, and the rest. Otherwise I go back for "just one more brick" that costs more, and time wasted of course!, than the whole pallet of bricks I had delivered in the first place.

Photoshop et al [imaging software] doens't really work for me ... I want to be able to work to scale: "Plant-X is 4' dia and Plant-Y is 3' dia therefore I need to plant then 3.5' apart - draw two circles dia 4' and 3' that distance apart"

Its a matter of moments to do that using CAD software.

Plus I can then colour them according to flower colour to check for combinations, seasons, and so on.

Then I stand the plants on the bare earth, shuffle them around a bit by eye, and plant'em. But, as the "6 P's" saying goes, I think that "Proper Planning Prevents piss Poor Performance" - probably

 

The initial layout I did with pen and paper. Then used the pc to put it in perspective with the plants, decking and things like the shed.