In our increasingly digitalized world, it makes sense that we can use a virtual tool to design our garden before we actually start planting anything in real life. Especially for people who are beginner gardeners, tools like these are extremely useful. They can help them visualize their future garden and arrange the plants as best as possible, without fear that they’ll make a mistake they can’t go back from. There are several tools out there that allow you to create a virtual garden, but today, we’re only going to talk about one of the best ones, namely Garden Puzzle. Let’s see how you can use this tool to design your garden!
Garden Puzzle Review
What Is Garden Puzzle?
Garden Puzzle is a software that helps people create a virtual garden by simply dragging and dropping items such as plants, fences, benches, and so on onto a background. The software is available both as an app and online, and it is extremely easy to use. As such, it’s perfect for people who don’t have a lot of experience with garden design software.
One of the greatest things about it is that it’s also appropriate for professional designers who are looking for some inspiration and want to create interesting and unique garden designs. Its tools and functions – that we’re going to discuss more in detail below – are quite advanced. Thus, they’re enjoyable for a savvier audience as well.
Garden Puzzle takes you through all of the steps of designing a garden. That way, you can really make the final creation your own. You get to choose everything, from the style of the garden to the smallest objects and plants that you want to place there. Moreover, the entire process doesn’t take a lot of time. That’s because the items are easy to place onto the chosen background. The background can be an actual image of your garden that you upload or one that you choose from the software’s collection.
If you’re a more inexperienced gardener, you can choose from their pre-established collection of designs and images. You can use them as they are or add and remove objects according to your liking. The aim of this software is to allow you to exercise your creativity while you design your own garden or backyard and plant shrubs, flowers, and trees. You can choose from different garden styles, which is great for people who are looking for new and interesting layouts.
How Do You Get Garden Puzzle?
As we’ve already mentioned, Garden Puzzle is available both online and as an application. For the online version, all you have to do is access their website and choose the “try it online” option. You will be taken to a new page where you can choose from pre-established background designs or upload your own photo to use as a background. Then, you’re free to add whatever items you want. You can also choose the type of soil and climate you have, for a more personalized experience.
The app is also available for free, both for Windows and Mac users. You can install it and follow the same steps as in the online version. What you should know about the app is that you can also create an account. The account is helpful if you want to save what you’ve created, enter contests, or be a part of the user community. You’ll need a username, a password, and an email address to sign up. This feature is free as a trial version. If you want the full version, you’ll have to pay $9.99 for 6 months.
How Can You Use Garden Puzzle?
Basically, Garden Puzzle has two main stages that you have to go through in order to complete a garden design. The first one is the informal shaping of the garden. In this stage, you’re going to create a layout for your garden. You’ll be able to look at the layout from above so that you can clearly see how the different plants and objects fit in your garden. This stage also allows you to add larger structures that you want your garden to contain. You can also build paths and give your garden a definite shape.
The formal design stage is much more detail-oriented and comprehensive. This is the stage where you can see your garden come to life as you start adding plants and different decorative items. The software contains a large selection of plants that you can choose from. Your choices can be based on weather conditions or the type of soil you have in your garden. After you’ve completed your design, you can save the image on your computer. Then, look at it for inspiration whenever you decide to put your ideas into practice.
Garden Puzzle – Main Features
Drag and Drop
One of the most important features of Garden Puzzle is its drag and drop tool. This allows users to easily move plants and objects around until they come up with the perfect setting. Plus, once you’ve set an item down, you get to make it bigger or smaller with just one click. That way, you’ll figure out exactly how a type of plant fits into your actual garden.
Brush Tool
Apart from adding plants and miscellaneous objects to your virtual garden, you can also add surfaces such as different types of paths, lawns, and even water. You can easily accomplish that with the software’s brush tool.
Structures
A truly gorgeous garden contains more than just plants. In order for your garden to stand out, you’re going to want to integrate other structures as well. This is where the app comes in handy. It has a collection of structures that includes fences, arbors, stones, benches, and so on.
Design Styles
For people who want to see their design in multiple forms, this app allows them to switch with only one click from a pencil sketch, to a watercolor painting, to an old photo style.
Plant Filters
Since the success of a garden is determined by the weather and the climate of the area where you create it, it comes as no surprise that Garden Puzzle also thought of including different types of climate and soil that you can choose from. Moreover, after you’ve selected the appropriate filters, the app suggests the types of plants that would work best in that area.
Seasons
One of the most charming aspects of this garden design software is the fact that you can switch between all four seasons. That way, you get a more realistic idea of how your garden will look like in spring, summer, autumn, and winter.
Head-on View
Most similar apps that allow you to design your own virtual garden provide you with an aerial view of it, one that is grid-based. The Garden Puzzle app breaks from the crowd by allowing you to look at your creation head-on. This way, you’ll be able to tell more accurately how the different plants you chose complement each other and what you could change to improve the look of your garden.
Flower-Based
Another thing that we felt we should mention in this Garden Puzzle review is the fact that the app is geared more towards people who want to create a purely decorative garden. This means that you can choose from plenty of flower and shrub varieties, as opposed to vegetables.
Publish Designs
If you’re passionate about gardening and you want to use this app to create different designs and exercise your creativity, then you might want to consider publishing your creations as well. If you buy the online subscription, you have the option to share your designs with other users. Who knows, maybe you’ll inspire them to create their own.
Inspiring Designs
If you feel like you don’t have enough inspiration to create your own garden design just yet, you can take a look at the app’s different design projects and gather some useful tips and tricks. You have many types of designs that you can browse through. Plus, they’re easy to find if you select different tags such as shrubs, backyard, or alkaline soil.
Garden Design Handbook
On the Garden Puzzle website, users are also able to read through a book entitled the “Garden Design Handbook”. The book is written by Izabela Parandyk-Zemsta, a landscape architect. It’s designed to teach users all about garden styles, plot inventories, theories of garden design, designing rural gardens, and many others.
Final Thoughts on Garden Puzzle
All in all, the Garden Puzzle design software is one of the best do it yourself landscape design online tools on the market. It provides users with a lot of cool and interesting features, a unique view of their creation, plus a lot of garden designs that can inspire and motivate them. Moreover, both the online version and the desktop app are easy to use and contain no bugs that could make this process difficult for you.
We hope today’s Garden Puzzle review has been helpful to you in deciding whether you should try using this software or not. We definitely recommend it to you, especially since you can sample it for free.
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