One plan. Every device.
Speak a discovery into your phone between two beds. Photograph whatever is flowering. Plan properly on the tablet — offline, out in the field. Then open the same garden in a browser at your desk.
Phone
Identify a plant from a photo, dictate observations, log a harvest — with soil on your hands.
Tablet
Draw and plan on the aerial image. Keeps working offline when there is no signal outside.
Desktop
macOS, Windows and Linux. The big screen for long planning evenings and PDF export.
Browser
Nothing to install, start straight away. Same garden, same data.
One account, synced automatically across every device.
The expensive mistakes happen in year one
Not through carelessness. A garden simply does not present its bill until years later.
Planted too close
A walnut needs twelve metres. On planting day it is a stick. Four years on it shades the bed you built around it.
Wrong plant, wrong place
Hardiness zone alone does not decide it. Heat sum, water balance, soil fertility, pH and shade do — Permaplans reads them all for your exact coordinates.
No idea what comes out
How many kilos, how many calories, how much of your own food? Without a plan that stays a guess for a decade.
All of it in your head
Which variety was that? What stood where, what died, what was harvested when? After three seasons nobody remembers — unless it is recorded at the spot itself.
Fastest understood by touching it.
The full app also runs in your browser. No download, no sign-up, no time limit.
Open Permaplans in the browserSee it moving
The four garden views below are the real app with a real garden — 55 plants, 19 layers, paths, beds, buildings. The fifth is the plant search. Click in and move around.
The time slider
Drag from today to twenty years ahead and watch the canopy close. Every plant grows on its own data — mature size, growth rate, age.
Open in its own tab →Walk through it
The same plan, seen from the side. Columns, vases, spheres — every species in its own habit, fruit as dots, the ground made from your paths and beds.
Open in its own tab →Layers, filters, true scale
Switch paths, beds, buildings, water and zones on and off one by one. Filter plants by layer, edibility or harvest month. Every circle is the real mature spread.
Open in its own tab →Sort, group, count
Every plant in the garden — by food-forest layer, by your own groups, by harvest window. With area, count and condition.
Open in its own tab →Over 40 filters, no sign-up
The app's full plant search: by edibility, food-forest layer, hardiness, soil, light, water need, growth rate, harvest month, nitrogen fixing, salt and lime tolerance. More than 1000 useful plants.
Open in its own tab →How Permaplans is different
Most garden apps keep track of what you have already planted. If you want to plan a garden rather than log one, that is not enough: Permaplans plans what you could plant — and shows what it looks like twenty years on.
| Feature | Permaplans | Typical garden apps | CAD / planning software |
|---|---|---|---|
| Food-forest planning in layers | Yes | No | Manual only |
| Site-based plant recommendations | Yes | Basic | No |
| Growth simulation over 10–30 years | Yes | No | No |
| Yield and self-sufficiency analysis | Calories, protein, fat | No | No |
| Windows, macOS and Linux | All three | Mobile only | Win/Mac |
Product categories are compared, not individual products. Based on publicly available information, as of August 2026.
Map, plant finder and encyclopedia — no app needed
Three tools run free in the browser: no account, no sign-up, no time limit. They answer the three questions every garden plan starts with — what does my plot actually look like, what grows here, and what can this plant do.
Free garden map
Your plot on official aerial imagery: 16 German states, Austria and Switzerland. Take parcel boundaries straight from the cadastre, contour lines, wet and dry spots, measure areas and distances, draw, and export as GeoJSON.
Open the mapSite plant finder
Enter a location and see which useful plants actually grow there. Six site values against more than 1000 species. Free, no sign-up.
Check a locationPlant encyclopedia
Around 1,130 food plants with profile, bloom and harvest calendar, uses, propagation and toxicity — free in the browser, to look up and to link.
Open the encyclopediaThe map also carries the planting distances to the property boundary — how far a tree, shrub or hedge has to stay from the line under your state's neighbour law. Permaplans warns you while planting, before the tree is in the ground, and the rules are written up separately for 16 German states, Austria, Switzerland and four neighbouring countries.
Common questions about planning a garden
The questions most people arrive with — answered briefly, with a link to the full answer.
What does a garden planning app cost?
The basic Permaplans plan is free forever: one garden, 13 plants and the full plant search, no credit card, no expiry date. Paid plans start at €29 a year (Starter) and can be cancelled at any time. See the full plan overview.
Can I plan a garden online for free, without installing anything?
Yes. The full app runs in the browser — open the demo, no sign-up, no time limit. It is also available to download for phone, tablet, Windows, macOS and Linux, where planning keeps working offline.
Which plants suit my location?
Hardiness zone alone is not enough. For your coordinates Permaplans reads six site values — USDA zone, heat sum above 5 °C, climatic water balance, soil fertility, pH and coarse-fragment share — and matches them against the tolerance ranges of more than 1000 useful plants. Try it without an account in the site plant finder.
How far from the property boundary does a tree have to be?
In Germany each federal state sets its own rule. An apple tree needs 2 m in Bavaria and 1.25 m in Lower Saxony; a large forest tree needs 2 m in Bavaria but 8 m in Baden-Württemberg and Lower Saxony. Shrubs up to 1.50 m sit at 0.5 m almost everywhere. Every state, plus Austria, Switzerland and four neighbouring countries, is listed with its statute on the planting-distance pages — and the app warns you while the tree is still a stick.
Where do I find my property boundary and an aerial image of it?
On the free map: official aerial imagery for 16 German states, Austria and Switzerland, together with parcel boundaries from the cadastre. One click turns a parcel boundary into your plot outline. No account, no sign-up.
How much land do I need to feed myself?
A single number would mislead — it depends on the crops, the climate, the soil and how much tree there is against bed. Permaplans works it out for your actual plan instead: area, plant age and cultivation data give kilograms, calories, protein and fat per year, projected across twenty years, because a fruit tree yields almost nothing in year three and a great deal in year fifteen.
How do I plan a food forest in layers?
A food forest is planned in storeys rather than in area: canopy, understorey tree, shrub, herb, ground cover, root and climber. Permaplans knows each species' layer, mature spread and growth rate, and shows where two canopies will overlap in twelve years — on the map, in the time slider, and walkable in 2.5D.
When does a fruit tree first crop?
Between the second and the tenth year in the ground, depending on species and rootstock. Every species page in the plant encyclopedia gives the years to first yield, along with lifespan, mature size and the flowering and harvest calendar. Inside a plan Permaplans turns that into a harvest curve over the years.
Plant in step with nature — for yourself and the generations after you.
The best time to plan was ten years ago.
The second best is before you dig the next hole.
One garden, 13 plants and the full plant search are free forever — no credit card, no expiry date.