You stand there and look at your boring backyard and wish that it looked like the ones you see on all of those D-I-Y shows. If you’ve ever watched the shows where they take a backyard with nothing and turn it into a showplace, you might wonder how they are able to envision the end results ahead of time.
I’ll tell you a little secret: they are using landscape design software. The packages available today can show you endless variations for using your space. The good packages come with everything you’ll need: a huge variety of flowers, shrubs and trees, and every hardscaping material you can imagine. Want to see what your patio would look like in concrete or flagstone? Just push a button. Think that tree will be too big for the space in a few years? A good garden design software package will show you the mature sizes of your choices.
The software should have an extensive plant encyclopedia to help you make choices like which plants need sun and which need shade. You can also group plants together based on their water needs so you don’t end up with something that needs to be watered twice a day next to a cactus that prefers to be watered every two weeks.
If you want a certain color scheme, or just don’t like red roses next to bright yellow daylilies, you can search for plants based on their flower color. You can also select a variety of plants based on their bloom time so that you always have flowers. Plant height is another thing that needs to be taken into consideration. You don’t want to end up with your 6 inch high aztec grass hiding behind 6 foot tall hollyhocks.
With many of the landscape design software packages available today, you can take a digital picture of your yard and import it into the program. Then you can see exactly what the changes will look like in your setting. This is a major feature to look for, especially if your yard is not the perfect square or rectangle.
By using the same software that the professionals use, you, too, will be able to envision, and create, a backyard that truly is a work of art.