Barry and Evelyn Bruneau wrote:
: I'm sure this topic has come up more than once and I apologize for any
: duplication.

: I am looking to purchase lanscape design software for home use. I have done
: quite a bit of searching on the web and have found varying opinions. I
: thought this would be the forum to get the best opinions.Any
: recommendations? If so, could you please include the pros and cons to the
: product you are recommending.

: BTW I am running Windows XP.

I have worked with most consumer market programs out there over the years
and unfortunately have yet to find one that is genuinely useful and
doesn't crash regularly. The ones with 3D modes are particularly fickle
and you risk a crash or data loss every time you run it in 3D mode (this
based on my experience on a 1.8GHz Dell 8250 running Windows 2000 Pro).

Sierra LandDesigner 3D is probably the most commonly available. But it has
become increasingly bloated and unstable after years of 'upgrades'.
Sierra acquired the original program from small company way back when
LandDesigner was a nice, clean CAD-based program with a good plant
database. To be fair, I gave up around version 5 and the latest is 7.0 or
so.

Some others: Burpee 3D Garden Designer and Encyclopedia and Broderbund 3D
Home Architect. Frankly, I didn't consider either one a 'keeper'. The
latter was particularly annoying with a user interface from hell.

Flowerscape is a bit different, no 3D, but it uses actual photos of
plants. Although it only offers a fairly limited plant library, it's fun
and easy enough even for little kids to use.

I'm sure I've forgotten some :? If you have ones that you were looking
at, let me know and I'll dredge up the information from the grayware.

You can find most of these program for cheap -- $10-$20 if you do some
digging online -- so it may be worth checking them out and see if they
work for you.

Good starting point for product searches is: http://froogle.google.com/

For most people, I usually recommend the old technology. Spend some money
on a good plant book, graph paper, colored pencils, and maybe some acetate
for overlays. With most of these programs (except Flowerscape) you may
find yourself spending frustrating hours puzzling out the mechanics of the
program when you could be having fun looking up plants and sketching your
plans.

Cheers!

-- Karen

The Garden Gate http://garden-gate.prairienet.org
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