Garden Design Software Program Reviews
By Jennifer Soule, KCMG 2001
As spring nears and seed catalogs arrive, gardeners itch to begin planning for the coming season. Colorful magazines, journal entries from past years, and gardening books can help gardeners with ideas, but when it comes to the nitty-gritty of new layouts or reconstructions, technology can speed the process and eliminate the drudgery of design and revision.
Reviews follow of some of my favorite garden design software programs. If your spring plans include the purchase of design software, take a few minutes to check out these offerings.
Garden Deluxe by Multimedia 2000. Price range: $25.99 to 34.99. Platform: Windows 95/98/Me/XP. Medium: CD-ROM. Features: 4 CD-ROMS, garden planner and plant care calendar, variable zoom levels, scaling and rotations, seasonal views of your designs, 650+ color photos and illustrations.
REVIEWS: No user reviews available.
3D Home Landscape Designer by Broderbund. Price range: $29.99-39.99. Platform: Windows 95/98/Me.
Medium: CD-ROM. Features: Virtual image of your home possible, view garden during day or night, add 3-D garden objects like gazebos, fences, and lighting, extensive plant encyclopedia.
REVIEW: This software package received poor reviews overall. It may be appropriate for those with the very simplest layout of both house and garden, but users judged it crude in terms of its ability to adapt to unusual shapes of house or plot. They also had a hard time using the manual and felt the plant encyclopedia was minimal. Graphics left much to be desired.
Punch! Master Landscape & Home Design Small Box by Punch! Software. Price: $59.99 to 69.99. Platform: Windows NT/95/98. Medium: CD-ROM. Features: nine programs for designing home exterior and landscape projects, planting zone information, deck design feature, 3-D custom workshop, ability to use your own photos for planning designs.
REVIEW: This product received decidedly mixed reviews. Appreciation for the product seems directly related to the amount of time one is willing to invest to learn to use it. Because it is a home design and landscape design combination, it allows the designer to change home shape and color, as well as to determine the landscape details. Those who loved it found it extremely powerful, if not easy to use, and were impressed with the ability to make accurate layouts and subtle color changes. Purchasers are encouraged by reviewers to visit the Punch! website and download recent patches and other information to enhance the software, including a “search by plant name” feature.
Those who disliked the software found it difficult to use and complained about the inability to search by plant name (be sure to download the patch from the Punch! website to cure this). One negative reviewer said that once the house outline is complete, the landscaping is a breeze. Again, if you are willing to invest the time in learning to use the product and getting the house design right, this may be the software for you.
Instant Landscaping (4 CD-ROM) by Topics Entertainment. Price: $19.99 to 29.99. Platform: Windows 95/98/Me. Medium: CD-ROM.
Features: 4 CD-ROM set, 3-D garden designer, instant landscape, water-wise gardening, gardener’s journal.
REVIEW: Each of the four discs is a separate program by a separate producer, which may require some patience on the part of the user. Disc one allows importation of a digital image of the home, to which landscape items may be added. Fences and other elements also are included. Disc 2 is the 3-D Garden Designer, produced by Burpee. It includes several sections and subcategories on everything from composting to hardiness zones, and includes a plant reference library accessible using both common plant names and scientific names. Once designed, gardens may be viewed by season and 3-D. Disc three has some use problems, but includes sections on color and biological pest control, among others. Disc four is a no-nonsense gardener’s journal.
While this may sound like a bargain set, actual users were not happy with it. Several found it totally or partially incompatible with their operating systems and were disappointed with the lack of help available from Topics Entertainment. Others just thought it unsophisticated and awkward.
CAD 3D/Landscape Design 3D (Jewel Case) by Activision. Price: $9.99. Platform: Windows 95/98/Me. Medium: CD-ROM
Features: Two full software products on one CD-ROM; ability to draw in 2-D and 3-D; 500+ architectural, mechanical and electrical objects; 60 different photo-realistic textures; tour your 3-D design in real-time movement.
REVIEW: This package includes two products on one CD-ROM: CAD 3D, which allows you to create professional looking drawings, and Landscape Design 3D, which allows you to create landscape plans and then tour them using real-time movement.
Users found the software to fulfill basic needs well. Problems involved the lack of documentation and long wait times when working with complicated designs. Another user liked the CAD portion very much, but was disappointed in the landscape portion.
In summary, while several programs exist for garden design, they seem to be either too simple or too complicated. A few seem to have the plant encyclopedia aspect covered, but fail in the design portions. If you have or find gardening software that you think does a good job (or even if you have a bad software experience), contact Jennifer Soule.
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Updates on software may be included in future Garden Gate issues.