If you are looking for garden design ideas you have more options than just driving around neighborhoods or looking at magazines you also have the choice of checking out online landscape designs. The most professional and detailed choice for online landscape designs seems to be landscape design drawings, they can be anything from simple garden design ideas to a complex complete renovation; in both instances you would get a done to scale drawing. This means that either you or a contractor would have to perform measurements on everything to ensure an easy installation.

You will also be likely asked to provide pictures of the property and home together along with a survey; some of the online landscape design companies will take measurements of the property and house in lieu of a survey. For garden design ideas you will need to provide them with some idea of what you want; for instance, if you are looking for a complete design or foundation plants, a patio, an arbor or simply a walkway around a garden.

The online landscape designs normally will include an estimate and agreement for you to sign, professional grade drawings, a list of any type of paving material that may be needed, additional notes on the drawings that they feel are necessary, a lighting design if appropriate, where the drainage areas should be and a complete plant list that has not just the name of the plants, but the size and quantity that you will need to create the design.

There are also 3D online landscape designs which are pretty amazing since often times people can have some difficulty actually seeing a design. The 3D design will include not just the landscape design done in three dimensional form it will also have the actual architecture of your home. This means that you will actually be able to see a better picture of what the final results will look like.

Most of the online landscape designs come from a program called Sketchup for their 3D renderings; the Cad drawing is entered into the software program and it transforms even the simplest of garden design ideas into beautiful, highly detailed, full color 3 dimensional drawings. This produces a lifelike illustration that becomes available to you in a PDF format or if you prefer they can also transfer the images to a CD or DVD and have it sent to you.