Design Your Dream Garden Online

As soon as Portland's damp, grey Winter loosens its grip and Spring brings color (if not sun) back to our neighborhood, I start hatching improbable garden schemes. I've had months to sit inside fantasizing about my dream garden, and in early Spring, reality hasn't had a chance to temper my ambitions.  

Too often, this giddy excitement drives my purchases at the nursery, and I end up buying plants that look lovely but won't work in my yard. Well, this year will be different. I've decided to try my hand at vegetable gardening which, in my mind, requires more planning than flower gardening. So, for the first time, I find myself looking around for tools to help me with the job. 
 
Nothing beats good book research (I love Sunset books for their practicality). But once you have a sense for what you want to accomplish, a Web-based layout tool can help you turn your dreams into a concrete plan. Here are the best tools I've found to get you there:



Better Homes & Gardens Plan-A-Garden
Cost: Free, requires registration 
 
The most straightforward tool I found was the Plan-A-Garden feature at Better Homes & Gardens. This free services lets you map out your entire garden, then drag-and-drop additions such as beds, individual plants, decks, and walkways. I especially like that you can change the dimensions of everything you place in the garden. Often, it's hard to picture the little 1-gallon ornamental grass at its full-grown six-foot height and width. If you spend a little time with Plan-A-Garden, you'll save plenty of money because you won't be (as) tempted to overbuy.





Plangarden.com
Cost: $20 per year with a 45-day free trial
 
Since my focus is veggies, I'm biased toward Plangarden.com. This Web-based subscription program allows you to plot and plan your garden, choose veggies to plant, and record your harvests all in one place. Journaling is an often-neglected but important part of garden planning so you can keep track as your garden changes throughout the year. I like that this service folds journaling right into the design process.  
 
 
 

Virtual Garden at the BBC
Cost: Free
 
Oh, how the British know and love their gardens! In fact, many of us want our flower beds to resemble English cottage gardens, with their natural-looking (but well-planned) tumble of colorful blooms. It's no surprise then that the BBC has devoted a section of its website to garden design. There are ready-made planting plans, but the more interesting tool is their Shockwave-based Virtual Garden. Set up a graph-based plan, and explore it in 3-D. The program even lets you start with pre-made garden templates. Sadly, I could not get the plugin to work in my browser so I couldn't test it myself, but it gets good reviews elsewhere on the Web.








DIY Garden Design Kit 
Cost: Free
 
Interestingly enough, the Web-based Australian version of Better Homes & Gardens (hosted on au.lifestyle.yahoo.com) offers a design tool that straddles software and paper. Download the DIY Garden Design Kit to print your own graph paper and cutout garden features, then move them around the page to jump start your garden design. It may not be as high-tech as the other three options, but it's a fine tool. At the very least, your kids might have fun using this kit to play "garden designer." 
 
 
Time to work out a design and get digging! What are your favorite sites for down-to-earth gardening advice?

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Asha Dornfest is the founder of Parent Hacks -- where savvy parents swap clever, often unconventional, parenting tips. Here's the practical, real-world stuff you'll never find in an "expert" book. Featured in Real Simple, Parents, and PC Magazine.