During the summer months many people spend the majority of their time outdoors anyways so why not purchase a yard design program to give you some garden designs and ideas and help you transform your yard into an outdoor home. The type of gardening plant design software you purchase largely depends on the types of features you want available in the program. Some software programs are a lot more user friendly and therefore easier to use, as opposed to the professional design software that is used by professional landscapers. Some 3D design software with online garden planner programs can even provide free pictures, layouts, and plans. These already made layouts are perfect for a home-owner knows little about gardening and design. Garden designing software can cost anywhere from $40 to $600, depending on they type and quality of the program you purchase. While most people focus on 3D free interior design software to help them redesign the inside of their homes, they overlook the importance of creating a beautiful outdoor design to match.

Most free garden designer programs have plant encyclopedias similar to the ones found in professional software programs. This plant encyclopedia is a great garden planning tool because it provides lists of thousands of plants, trees, shrubs, and flower garden ideas that you can decorate your garden with. The more advanced programs even have information about the types of climates that are optimal for certain plant growth, the amount of water needed for each plant, and even the type of soil that the plants will grow best in. The wide varieties of plant options that are available in the plant encyclopedias allow you to customize your garden to suit your needs. While some would prefer to have a colorful garden filled with flowers, trees and shrubs, others may prefer to build their very own vegetable garden to produce and use home-grown vegetables. Some garden design programs even come with a vegetable garden designer to help plan and create a small patio herb garden, or a large backyard vegetable garden.

Some of the more professional design programs also have irrigation and lighting tools to help you better plan your garden. This type of garden design software allows you add an irrigation system to your garden layout, add pop up sprinklers to incorporate a watering system into your garden design, and even allow you to adjust the spray range of the sprinklers to make sure all your plants obtain the optimal amount of water.

Looking through the vast array of landscaping and gardening magazines that are present in home improvement stores, searching online for gardening and landscaping design ideas and plans, or even purchasing some type of garden layout and design software.These types of software programs allow you to design a virtual garden and visualize what it will look like in your yard. Certain design programs even allow you to upload photos of your own yard to get an even more realistic image of your new garden or landscape.

Different programs have a tool that allows you to visualize your garden in the daytime, night time or dusk, to help determine if you will need to incorporate outdoor light fixtures or outdoor fireplaces into your garden design. These programs tend to be pretty user friendly so even if you do not know how to design a garden layout, these free home design software programs can get you on your way to designing an outdoor garden oasis for you and your family to enjoy.

A little research can help you decide the best garden planning software for you. There are a variety of backyard design software programs have a variety of unique features including, plant libraries, plant growth simulations, the ability to change lightings and seasons to see what your garden will look like during the spring or winter, and even plant growth indexes to find plants that will grow best in your climate region.