GardenCAD

GardenCAD approaches garden planning as a spatial problem. Beds, buildings and tree canopies can be drawn to scale, measured and adjusted as real geometry instead of decorative blocks. The editor then models the sun for a chosen latitude and date, making live shadows and shade or heat overlays available while plants are being placed. That combination is unusually helpful when the difficult part of a garden is not choosing a species but finding the patch where it can receive the right light.

A simpler mode can lay out a garden without requiring the user to learn the full drawing system, while the advanced editor supports irregular shapes and exact dimensions. Plans are stored locally in the browser without an account, with JSON import and export for portability; an optional account adds syncing. Hardiness-zone and frost-date estimates round out the planning view, although local observation should still overrule a model when buildings, slopes or mature trees create a microclimate.