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Nothing's more beautiful than a flourishing garden, and your computer can help you plan one. A number of free or inexpensive online tools and resources are available that will help you create the garden design you want, whether you need help selecting just a few plants or you want to landscape your entire backyard.

Choose the right plants for the right place. Today's many choices of garden design software help take the guesswork out of what to plant where. You can select the plants that will grow best in your area, determine the best planting sites, and create an overall look that will stay beautiful throughout the growing season—all without leaving the comfort of your chair. Here are some tips for selecting the software that's best for you.

What to Look for in Garden-Design Software

• Plant encyclopedia, including soil, sun, and moisture requirements
• Ability to incorporate photos of real-life backgrounds to visualize results
• Easy-to-use interface with features like the ability to drag-and-drop plants into the design
• Realistic graphics with good texture, color, and so on
• Ability to show changes throughout the season
• Easy-to-use tutorials to help you get started quickly

Start with a rich source of information.
Looking for a tall perennial plant that grows in full sun and doesn't require much water? Garden design software can help. With a searchable encyclopedia of plants entries based on their common and Latin names and a few clicks, you can find a list of plants that meet your requirements. The electronic format makes it convenient to "select" your plants and insert them into your garden design where you can immediately check out the results.

See your plantings as they will look later, before you even put them in the ground.
Garden design is all about creating and experimenting—adding and subtracting plants and other features for the best effect. Are yellow and orange flowers a pleasing combination? Will that maple tree grow too large and overpower the house? Does the birdbath really look good there next to the trellis? Garden design software lets you fast forward in time, showing you what your garden will look like early in the planning process, before you commit to making purchases. Easy-to-use software lets you experiment as much as you want, moving things around and adding or subtracting elements as you please to improve the overall effect.

Include the surroundings to get the big picture.
Many garden-design software packages allow you to use photos, so if you have access to a digital camera, include images of your house, existing gardens, and other features to give you a much better idea of how your design will fit in with the environment. For example, you might want to add some taller plants in front of the gas meter to partially hide it from view, or you may want to experiment with different color combinations that complement the paint on your house—the possibilities are endless, and you'll end up with a more pleasing result when the project is done.

See into the future—visualize your garden at different times of year.
As the seasons change, some plants fade, while others peak. Visualizing what your garden will look like at any point in time can be difficult. For example, those daffodils that bloomed luxuriously in early spring left a huge bare spot when they died back in summer. Now you need to add a plant to cover the spot. Garden design software lets you cycle through the months of the year, so you can recognize those issues upfront and fine-tune your garden's appearance over time.

Putting your computer to work as you plan makes it simple to make good choices. And it gives you more time to get out and garden.