Your Learning Zone - Better Homes and Gardens Landscaping and Deck Designer 8.0

Create beautiful landscapes, terrain features, gardens and decks for your perfect outdoor living spaces.

Quickly design the virtual look and feel of your backyard, deck, patio, pool or any outdoor project. View Product Demo

Make your deck or patio ideas come to life with built-in 3D visualization tools.

Choose from several styles of templates--decks, landscaping, pools and terrains to start your next deck or landscaping project.

Fun & Easy Outdoor Home Design Software
Landscaping & Deck Designer makes it easy to design your next outdoor project. Use valuable resources like Plant Chooser to learn more about plants, the Design Planning Center with design tips, and choose from over 3,700 plants, trees and shrubs to place and arrange in your outdoor living space. Create the virtual look and feel before you build!

Over 3,700 Landscaping Plants

• Get started quickly by choosing pre-arranged garden beds to place into your design
• Choose from over 3,700 realistic plants; import photos of your own plants--view a sampling of plants
• Plant Chooser to quickly locate and learn detailed plant information
• Plant Hardiness Zone maps--North America, Europe and Australia
• Advanced plant searching by sun, shade, watering, deer resistance and more
• Plant Growth slider tool--visualize how your plants will look in 3, 5, or even 20 years from now

Get Started Quickly and Easily

• The Quick Startup Options Guide will help you begin with "How-To" tutorials based on the type of your project
• Select from the pre-designed Landscaping, Deck and Pool Templates
• Exclusive Design Planning Center for up-to-date How-To and Design Tips from the experts to help in your design process
• Includes Step-by-Step Tutorial DVD Packed with over 40 easy "step-by-step" tutorial training videos that will quickly get you started on your next outdoor design project

Decks and Patios

• Make your deck or patio ideas come to life with built-in 3D visualization tools
• Experiment with your design and take a virtual tour
• Use the Deck Designer tools to quickly design the layout of your deck
• Design single or multi-level decks including free-standing, tiered and post-and-beam
• Deck foundations automatically generate to match sloped lots
• Automatic and manual deck framing tools with an advanced deck framing option for more complicated deck designs
• Use the automatic tools for adding stairs, deck railings and roofs
• Define decking materials, place and arrange outdoor furniture to correctly size your deck or patio
• Automatically generate a complete spreadsheet for your project costs, broken down by category. Calculate the amount of lumber for your deck or concrete required for your new patio.
• Generate various styles of Automatic roofs for your deck or patio

Use the Pathway or Stepping Stone tools to design curb-appealing landscaping using stone or pavers--line with trees, shrubs, flowers and more.

Visualize designs with day and night views.

Quickly create flowerbeds by choosing from one of the several pre-arranged flower groupings or create your own flowerbed using specific plants.

Plants and Landscaping

• Quickly create flowerbeds by choosing from one of the several pre-arranged flower groupings or create your own flowerbed using specific plants
• Use the Replace from Library to choose a group of plants and replace with another
• Import your digital photos and add landscaping features such as fences, trees, flowers, shrubs and more!
• Drag and drop thousands of items from the Library Browser. Choose plants, pavers, windows, doors, outdoor accessories, textures, furniture and more. Download Free Bonus Libraries from our website.
• Use the Better Homes and Gardens Design Planning Center to help guide your designs with guidelines, tips and expert advice
• Design Inspiration Gallery--Our gallery of photos will help you to jump start your design and decorating style ideas with inspirational photos by rooms

Outdoor Design Tools

• Choose from several styles of templates--decks, landscaping, pools and terrains to start your next deck or landscaping project.
• Design in 2D and 3D. 3D Views are automatic--just point-and-click with the camera tool. You can even use Glass House view to see through surfaces.
• Create a Virtual Tour--draw your record line to Automatically Generate; or record your camera movements
• Visualize designs with day and night views
• Generate shadows from the sun for realistic 3D views
• Choose from a variety of styles of great looking outdoor furnishings including tables, chairs, swing sets, or import your own. Easily change the size and color.
• Use the Pathway or Stepping Stone tools to design curb-appealing landscaping using stone or pavers--line with trees, shrubs, flowers and more
• Material Painter lets you apply colors and materials quickly and easily
• Choose from thousands of colors and textures or create your own materials using a digital photograph

Terrain Design Tools

• Ponds & Streams--Create water features for your landscaping projects using the Stream or Pond tool--simply click to place and then resize
• Terraces and Terrain Walls--Use the Terrain Wall Tool to create terraces or divide your Terrain slopes
• Contours and Elevations--Drag elevation lines or set specific elevation points to create your contoured lots
• Use Automatic Build Terrain and Terrain Perimeter tools to create flat, irregular shaped or sloped lots--use a GPS to import or enter elevation data

Site Planning Tools

• Create plot and perimeter plans; automatically generate a 3D model of your actual terrain
• Virtual Graph Paper displays a grid for 2D planning
• Sprinkler Designer tools to easily layout sprinkler zones
• Fences, Driveways and Sidewalks follow terrain contours
• Hill and Valley tools make it easy to add gardens, beds and slopes that automatically appear in 3D views. Choose from landscaping style templates or create your own.
• Define Terrain Elevation lines, Elevation Regions and Terrain Breaks
• Automatic Terrain Perimeters--customize to define your specific lot
• Plot and perimeter plans--flat and sloped lots
• One-Click Hill and Valley tools
• Create terraces with retaining walls that follow terrains and can break the terrain
• Manual dimension tools measure any distance including dimensioning to individual plants