AI in Bloom: How tech helped our garden take deep root

Early last year, we went through a full landscape remodel of the house. We had struggled with our core landscape design and setting our garden right. We had no idea what to plant for which season: every time we planted, they would die within three months.

This time around, we initially thought about getting a landscape consultant. But then ChatGPT came along, so we thought, why not give it a try. It started with an iterative process. The first step was feeding our landscape plan to ChatGPT, which my wife made in Figma, and she asked the AI model to critique each area based on our preferences that she included in the plans and prompts.

In addition to this, we wanted California native plants to support the environment around us. All of these went into prompts, with a lot of back and forth. We also used tools like Nano Banana for visualization to provide to the contractor. We had a Zen garden on the other part of the house and used it to visualise how that area would look to determine the right pedestal for a Buddha statue.


Overall, very happy with how it turned out, and we are enjoying the flowers and fruits, along with the butterflies, birds and even lizards that come with a healthy California garden!

Prompts used

Help me critique this landscaping plan for my garden. We want trees that would grow between 7-8 feet for privacy.

We live in California and plants should survive the sunny weather as well as support the native ecosystem.

Visualize the paver patterns to help me choose between soldier vs sailor course.

We want to create a Zen garden in this space. Help me visualise a Buddha statue in the corner on a pedestal given what you know of the landscaping plans?

How does the bird bath and fountain fit in as water elements in these locations? What heights should we plan? What materials should we use?

To share interesting stories of how you use AI in your everyday life, please write to eteyeonai@timesofindia.com

The author Krishna Mehra is AI Partner, Elevation Capital.
(As told to Swathi Moorthy)

_{Disclaimer: This column does not constitute advice; readers act on it at their own risk.}