Can AI Design My Garden?

08 Sep Can AI Design My Garden?

AI – also known as Artificial Intelligence is a modern day wonder. It’s a great tool for some businesses, carrying out swift data analysis and saving hours of admin time. But can AI effectively replicate do what garden designers do? We’re not so sure. Because as useful as AI is, some things in life just need a human touch. 

Gardens are so personal, so special and so – well – human – that their design deserves the full attention of a highly talented person. Someone who can tailor a space to the specific needs and tastes of the people who will be using them. Katie and Paul from Tapestry Design Studios both agree that we should leave the AI robots to analyse data, speed up health diagnoses and optimise traffic lights, while garden designers focus on creating spaces where people can embrace nature, relax, and escape the hurly burly of an AI controlled life.

Let’s dig deeper into their reasoning…….

Listening, understanding, empathising, visualising –
these are crucial elements of the garden design process that are beyond the capabilities of an AI robot.

Why AI Cannot Replace Garden Designers

• At the time of writing, it seems that AI garden design is about generating images – not designing usable spaces that can be built within budget. 
• Generating a garden design from a ‘before’ picture does not take into account topography, soil conditions or build budget
• Garden Design requires empathy, intuition and vision – these are skills that robots just don’t have
• An AI generated image does not take into account how you want to use your garden, what features are required or what problems need to be overcome – all of these things need human input.
• A garden design needs to consider what the garden will be like from every angle and every view point. The AI images we’ve seen only show you one perspective.
• No structural specifications are given with an AI garden design – to try to replicate what’s seen in an image may lead to dangerous or short-lived garden elements.
• A landscaper can neither quote, nor build from an AI generated image alone – they need a comprehensive plan with clear measurements and specifications.
• Local planning restrictions, building regs and CDM (2015) regulations need to be considered at the design stage – we’re not confident that AI is able to do that.
• Build budget is a big part of garden design, whilst AI tries to help you visualise a dream, it cannot know whether that particular dream is affordable for you.
• Ongoing maintenance is another factor of garden design – will the finished garden be manageable for the client? AI can’t possibly know that!
• Whilst AI claims to be able to help with planting choices, it doesn’t ask for nearly enough information about a garden in order to make informed suggestions.

A quick sketch for a back garden design idea that popped into Katie’s head one evening – Katie often considers several ideas for each project and carefully assesses each one to find the best match for the client’s brief and build budget.

Can AI Replicate The Intangible Talents Of A Garden Designer?

Well trained and experienced garden designers, like Katie Moyes from Tapestry Garden Design, are a complex mix of scientist and artist. They understand the way soil, plants and landscaping materials behave. And at the same time can visualise ways of creating a gorgeous look and feel that suits an individual garden space.

Garden design involves a deep knowledge of several very diverse subjects. Including – but not limited to: 

• Listening and brainstorming with clients to gain a feel for their personal taste and what they want their garden makeover to achieve for them.
• Understanding how humans and pets typically use their outdoor spaces, 
• Knowing how soil, water and landscaping materials behave in different circumstances. Such as exposure to extreme weather conditions, wear and tear from moving vehicles, pressures exerted by general usage and so much more
• A strong command of the properties and suitability of various landscaping materials and construction techniques, 
• Awareness of local building regulations, planning rules and the CDM (2015) regs.
• Visualising the improvements to a space and being able to create a plan that conveys their ideas to the client and the landscaper. 
• Knowing how to curtail their artistic instincts in favour of keeping within the client’s build budget, but still injecting the wow factor into every garden they design.
• Setting realistic expectations of what can be achieved within the space and within the budget.
• A passion for plants and the expertise to plan planting displays that will look good and thrive in the client’s garden

In our opinion, what can never be learned or programmed into a computer is the artistic vision that garden designers seem to be born with. AI can look at existing images of gardens, ‘label’ them with a style and then regurgitate them to create a pretty picture. But AI designs are not personalised or tailored in any way because there is no empathy with the client. 

A garden designer on the other hand has a wonderfully imaginative side to their personality that enables them to ‘see’ gardens differently. Even our top designer, Katie, can’t explain every part of the design process. She ‘just knows’ which features, proportions, textures, colours, materials and styles will ‘work’ for an individual client in a particular space.

Does Modern Technology Have Any Place In Garden Design?

Just because we’re not a fan of using AI for garden design, doesn’t mean that garden designers are luddites. Technology plays an enormous role in our work. From laser measures, to garden design software, 3D renders and lifelike video walkthroughs of a concept design, we love the way that modern innovations make it easier to achieve accurate and well presented visualisations of our work. 

We’re just not convinced that AI offers an all-round substitute for a trained, experienced and creative human garden designer.

Great garden designs are created ON computers, not BY computers.

Of course, there is an argument that client’s could use AI to experiment with different garden styles and colour schemes to see which they like best. A bit like a mood board. That’s not altogether a bad idea, however, it’s important to remember that AI is likely to make unrealistic suggestions – things that could not be built within budget, or plant combinations that would never survive in that space. It’s crucial to keep an open mind!

Would It Be Cheaper To Use AI Than To Hire A Human Garden Designer?

The thing about prices, is you get what you pay for. Yes, on the face of it, it is probably cheaper (and arguably quicker) to ask AI to generate an image of what your garden could look like. But, to get a realistic idea whether it is practical and affordable to build that garden and get that look, you would need to do a lot of research into landscaping techniques, equipment hire, suitability of materials and plants and so much more. 

The beauty of hiring a human garden designer, is that they factor all of those things into the design so that your garden can be built to a high standard within your budget. With AI, you’ll probably need to spend a lot of time requesting revisions before realising that you still haven’t got all of the information you need to remodel your space. In fact, you’ll probably need a garden designer anyway to draw up an accurate plan.

AI Garden Design – The Limitations

Let’s take a look at how AI has re-imagined Paul’s front garden.  

Paul’s front garden with layout and planting designed in collaboration with Katie at Tapestry Design Studios – a real life person

Now Paul is very happy with his front garden. It was designed in collaboration with Katie at Tapestry Design Studios and incorporates plenty of practical parking space as well as beautiful and pollinator friendly planting.

But just for ‘fun’ and as an experiment, we fed a picture of the garden into a free AI garden design program and asked it to design a mediterranean style garden for the space. Here are just two of the results.

Two AI generated garden designs for a mediterranean themed space. These are both based on the same image of Paul’s garden (above)

The first thing you’ll notice, is that in each example Paul’s house has been replaced by a completely different structure. Plus, all of the surrounding houses have been removed and replaced with mediterranean scenery. It looks as though the climate may have changed too!

I know there are potential garden design clients out there who CAN afford to completely remodel their home AND buy up and demolish the neighbourhood – but those people are definitely few and far between.

A human garden designer takes care to consider which elements can and cannot be changed. And if there are plans for an extension or changes to the house, they can work with the architect to create a cohesive design.

The layout for the garden in each case is actually very similar to the original layout – only the materials and the plants have changed.

There’s no indication of how the garden would look from within the house or from different points within the garden. 

Keeping it in perspective….

It’s important to point out that this was the FREE version of ChatGPT’s garden design ‘service’ and that we have seen other, paid-for design options and read accounts where people have been able to create far more sophisticated images. They’ve been able to choose which features should be retained and asked for changes to the design. One blogger was very happy with her results and used the inspirational pictures to discuss her new garden with her landscaper. She did however, admit that the proportions were a bit off and the design was in no way perfect. This particular lady, wrote as though she had a clear vision of what her garden should look like and how she wanted to use it. In many of our commissions, the client has done lots of research into materials and styles and still can’t decide how their new garden should be laid out for the best.

Can AI produce inspiring garden design images?

Absolutely it can and a real life garden designer can use those images to better understand the client’s personal taste and style. In fact AI, along with online tools such as Pinterest and Instagram can be a great source of inspiration.

Could AI generated images be used to build a garden?

No, at least not at the time of writing. Any landscaper needs accurate measurements, information on where the utility pipes and wires run, a strong sense of how water behaves in the garden and, of course, clear structural specifications.

An Online Alternative To AI Garden Design

No garden makeover should go ahead without first investing in professional garden design. As we’ve already discussed in this article, garden design is far more complicated than choosing some slabs and deciding where to put them. 

At Tapestry Design Studios completely understand some of the barriers to hiring a garden designer – time, finding someone who understands your style, fear of losing control of the project etc etc etc. We’re not at all bossy or flamboyant and we don’t have extravagant tastes. But if you (or your landscaper!) really don’t feel comfortable working one to one with a designer, there is an alternative. 

My Garden Design offers an online service where you work together with your landscaper to build an online garden design brief. The brief is then turned into a design by a professional garden designer before being emailed back to your landscaper. You don’t have to meet with, or even speak to the designer if you prefer not to. This service is very much a human-led enterprise – designs are built ON the computer, not BY the computer.

Discover more by visiting the My Garden Design website.  My Garden Design is a member of the Association of Professional Landscapers – so you know it is a trustworthy organisation.

In Summary

Artificial Intelligence is a wonderful thing and has many practical applications, but some things in life just need a human touch. Garden design is one of those things. Gardens are so personal, so special and so – well – human – that their design needs, nay deserves, the full attention of a highly talented person who can tailor the space to the specific needs and tastes of the people who own and use them. So let’s leave the AI robots to analyse data, speed up health diagnoses and optimise traffic lights, while garden designers focus on creating spaces where we can embrace nature, relax and escape the hurly burly of an AI controlled life.

If you’d like human help to design your dream garden, and you think Tapestry Design Studios could be of service to you, here’s how to contact us.

You may also like to take a peek at our portfolio to see some of our award-winning designs brought to life.