Free landscape designer

[bluemink]

I have just bought a house and the garden requires total re-build due to years of neglect.
Does any kind sole know a site on the net that offers a good easy to use free programme to help me design my back garden.

The problem i have is that the garden falls sharply down hill and i wanted to find some designs to help me get the best use of the land.

Many thanks in advance

 

[nstreet]

The problem i have is that the garden falls sharply down hill and i wanted to find some designs to help me get the best use of the land.

Sounds just like mine! I've just started shifting earth to try and even the garden out. Also in the process of removing 12, 10ft high x 8ft deep leylandii. Thats what happens to them if they are left unchecked

 

[bluemink]

You have a large tree to shift as well, this is uncanny so do i, you sure its not the same garden lol

 

[breezer]

don't know about free software, but you have 3 choices

1) live with it (not really that good, but previous owner did)

2) make it into terraces

3) make it all even.

either by reving 50% and puting it in the "shallow" or importing more soil and filling the shallow.

some one i know did option 3, cost a lot, but it now looks really nice

 

[Thermo]

i do all my garden designs by hand. Most of the cheap or the free stuff is either american based and very difficult to use.

Measure your garden and plot anything in it you want to keep.

by a cheap scale rule and some graph paper, plot the garden out on it and draw in anything you wish to keep. That will give you a good idea of what space you have and what you can do with it.

Have a good look around garden centres, tv progs and books as well as the net, well worth looking at landscaping companies sites as they usually have a gallery of work done.

If its sloping on a site you can terrace it cheaply (comparativley with decking as opposed to moving earth etc) or use sleepers to form retaining walls, which are quicker and cheaper than building masonry ones (use softwood easy to cut, handle look good etc etc)

Then once youve got the ideas you can start to design your garden around the ideas

Alternativley give a decent landscape designer a call!

 

[masona]

Alternativley give a decent landscape designer a call!

Or see Thermo profile

 

[bluemink]

just i quick thanks for all the kind replies.

 

[countygardens]

Alternativley give a decent landscape designer a call!

Or see Thermo profile

Ooooo, NASTY!!!

 

[Thermo]

or countygardens (just to even things up) (unless you dont like my profile!)

 

[countygardens]

or countygardens (just to even things up) (unless you dont like my profile!)

Hey! No need to start on me!

 

[Brightness]

Are we allowed to post links???? The BBC has a garden designer on their site. Don't know how good it is exactly but my hubs got a few good ideas when he was landscaping ours last summer

 

[moderator]

Are we allowed to post links????

Please do.

 

[Brightness]

Thanks moderator

http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/htbg2/virtual_garden/ might be worth looking at...