Using IT to create a planting plan?

bouicca21

The tree surgeon comes today to remove the stumps and roots from my adopted flower bed. So post Christmas and new year I'll be reading up as much as I can in order to plant it up.

Now just as I no longer write by hand, it occurs to me that it must be possible to draft a planting plan on the computer. Given my supreme ignorance it's going to take a lot of drafts before I start planting.

Google says there are several apps, but most of them are about designing the garden, and a couple I've tried for free don't have a proper plant database beyond 'bush' or 'flower'.

Any suggestions? I can't help but think that a (preferably small) investment in some software might help me achieve a planting plan more quickly as well as save me some costly mistakes. I have a windows PC and an iPad.

Any suggestions?

DaftyDuck

I have tried - and failed - to find any worthwhile computer software that does this on a garden scale. There are a few Google tools that cover design (brain fail at the moment), there are a couple of "pro" programs costing hundreds or even thousands, and then there are several "Garden Designer" programs, mainly from the early 2000's... which sound promising. I bought two, at bargain price - off ov from Ebay. One was Geoff Hamilton's Garden Designer, the other somebody else's. They are the same program, bar a couple of minor differences, and both are trash, dated, clunky, unusable. I think I spent £1:05 on one, and that was £1:04 too much.

I don't reach into the realms of iAnything, and I will be mighty jealous when told there's an app for that.

What do I do? Well, I do draw, scribble really, both with my books out indoors, and them indoors, and me out. I work out a layout that I can do, afford, and that has stuff I love. I do a little design work.

Then I get plant labels, mark them out with name of plant, size, season it's best, and move them around the bed. If needed, I use flowerpots, wheelbarrow, dogs, buckets for scale. Then I plant it all out just exactly so, and sit back.

I still dig half of it out six months later, and plant it right!

Elsewhere

If you Google "planting plan" lots of info pops up, including diagrams with all the plants labelled. For instance there's photos of Chelsea flower show gardens with lists of plants used:-

https://www.shootgardening.co.uk/article/type/chelsea-flower-show-2015

I_have_spoken

My work is IT, but for my garden I just used squared paper to give me the scale, 1 square per foot or whatever works best.

I did find some of the free-form sketching apps useful (on iPad, Paper by 53), but the more formal design/layout tools were too much of a faff.

Paper is good, you can take a picture of the 'as is' scene then start sketching over that to get an impression of where to add height or colorful plants etc.

bouicca21

That Shoot site is really useful - my problem is both lack of knowledge and lack of the ability to visualise what plants will actually look like next to each other. So when I see a border that looks great I can't imitate it because I don't know what the plants are. And when I see plants I like I can't work out how to put them together.

Come new year I am going to have to work hard at learning enough to make a decent stab at a planting plan. I'll ask Santa to bring me some graph paper.

I console myself that almost anything I do will be better than the jungle of weeds that has now been removed.

DaftyDuck

You can, of course, repot the plants in slightly-larger-than-sold pots, then simply plant the pots themselves for the first year, thus allowing the indecisive (What, moi? Indecisive? Well, maybe I am. Or not...) to play chess until the garden is right. Not good for all plants, but most shrubs and many perennials will manage just fine if well-watered.

If you wander around your neighbourhood on a Sunday afternoon until you see a fine garden, you could knock on the door full of flowery compliments, and ask them what a few of the plants are, and if they'd grow in your (south...north facing) bed. Gardeners are invariably nice people, and are likely to enthuse about what they've done. You may also get a few cuttings that way too. Helps if you catch some daft old buggar on his knees, just don't poke him too hard, or I mi he might keel over from the shock!

Local gardening clubs and societies are also a useful meet for all us old(ish) codgers.

REEN

Good ideas on the Crocus website. The plants are expensive though. http://www.crocus.co.uk/ready-made-borders/

I prefer to go down to the garden centre and choose herbaceous plants that will split easily. Plant the pieces fairly close and they will soon make a good clump.

bouicca21

I've found one gardening group to join. Haven't seen a decent garden locally though tbh I've been working such long hours that I haven't explored my new neighbourhood as much as I'd like.

And yes I like some of the ideas on the crocus site. And now I have more time Wisley and Great Dixter are just crying out for visits.