SketchUp in Landscape Designing

Like any great undertaking, you need to have some idea of what you are doing at any given time. Landscaping plans are no exception. The tricky part is getting around to all the various landscaping plans and options that there could potentially be, and of course, visualizing the whole event in your minds eye can be challenging.

Building Your Blueprints the first and most obvious way to plan for what you need to do is to draw a sketch. Sit down with a pencil, and yes, it must be a pencil and a blank piece of paper. Block your house and any other obstacles that you might not be able to work around, and then - go to town! Draw something, erase it, try again - your landscaping plans are just that - plans and as with any plans you need to do some brainstorming before you can get anywhere with it.

Your landscaping plans should probably go through several drafts before you come up with a pretty solid idea of what you want. That is not to say that you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you know exactly what you want your design to look like, although you might. The premise of the exercise is just to help you visualize, brainstorm, and work through some of the potential options for your landscaping plans. But, what about for those of us who are artistically challenged; whose stick figures most closely resemble H.P Lovecraft's nightmares? Worry not - google.com offers a free utility called SketchUp. SketchUp it can create 3D models for Google Earth, another utility. SketchUp lets you put into a 3D visualization exactly how your landscaping plans will look.

This has definite benefits over the pencil and paper method, but at the same it can limit creativity and can be frustrating for those people who are not technology-compatible (get the joke?). However, it is another option for creating those wonderful landscaping plans which will be your first and arguably most important step to having your landscaping dreams come true. Outside of that, landscaping plans involving drawing, calling contractors, finding the best price for exactly what you want, deciding on plants, layout, colors, form, textures - the whole nine yards. That's why making your landscaping plans is so important because the project can quickly become overwhelming and not all that enjoyable, which one would hope it would be if you are trying to do it yourself.