Hello,

In searching google groups and all sorts of gardening webpages, i
have come across the names of a few landscape packages. Such as:
Sierra Complete Land Designer, Autodesk Architectular desktop,
Landscape3d, Master Landscape, and Grow it gold; to name a few. Now
many of these seem to be pretty good (of course at least on of those
is WAY out of my price range). Where i run into problems, is that I
don't know if any of these has native support for Southwestern plants
and xeriscaping. Thats one of the features i need, the other being
support for importing a photo of the house to be landscaped. I don't
mind if the software has
a steep learning curve. Any recommendations would be greatly
appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Yours,

k31

"renwok" wrote in message
om...
Hello,

In searching google groups and all sorts of gardening webpages, i
have come across the names of a few landscape packages. Such as:
Sierra Complete Land Designer, Autodesk Architectular desktop,
Landscape3d, Master Landscape, and Grow it gold; to name a few. Now
many of these seem to be pretty good (of course at least on of those
is WAY out of my price range). Where i run into problems, is that I
don't know if any of these has native support for Southwestern plants
and xeriscaping. Thats one of the features i need, the other being
support for importing a photo of the house to be landscaped. I don't
mind if the software has
a steep learning curve. Any recommendations would be greatly
appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Yours,

k31


There has been considerable discussion on garden software over the past few
years and the consensus is it doesn't exist--yet.

I've used Sierra and Broderbund, both stink. Sierra crashes a lot and both
are OK if you are designing a whole landscape of trees and bushes, but
absolutely stink when trying to design perennial beds and/or vegetable
gardens.

Paper and colored pencils really are better. For each bed, I take 4 pieces
of paper and label them Spring, Early Summer, M/L Summer and Fall. Circles
are the plants, they are colored in with their bloom color on the
corresponding sheet and are colored in green on the sheet when not in bloom.
It's worked well for me.

--
Kristen
Zone 6, SE NY

"KrisHur" wrote in message ...
There has been considerable discussion on garden software over the past few
years and the consensus is it doesn't exist--yet.

I've used Sierra and Broderbund, both stink. Sierra crashes a lot and both
are OK if you are designing a whole landscape of trees and bushes, but
absolutely stink when trying to design perennial beds and/or vegetable
gardens.

Paper and colored pencils really are better. For each bed, I take 4 pieces
of paper and label them Spring, Early Summer, M/L Summer and Fall. Circles
are the plants, they are colored in with their bloom color on the
corresponding sheet and are colored in green on the sheet when not in bloom.
It's worked well for me.

See, what we need is somthing to show in semi realism what changes
might look like. Not everyone can visualize with their mind what
somthing looks like on a sheet of paper. Just as some people like to
get a walk thru of their house before its built, i'd like to be able
to show people what their yard would look like before its done.


Yours,

k31

renwok wrote:

See, what we need is somthing to show in semi realism what changes
might look like. Not everyone can visualize with their mind what
somthing looks like on a sheet of paper. Just as some people like to
get a walk thru of their house before its built, i'd like to be able
to show people what their yard would look like before its done.


Unfortunately, the best programmers haven't see sunlight since they
graduated from high school, and aren't even aware that different plants
are in bloom at different times.

(Ooops! Did I say that out loud?)

--
Warren H.

==========
Disclaimer: My views reflect those of myself, and not my
employer, my friends, nor (as she often tells me) my wife.
Any resemblance to the views of anybody living or dead is
coincidental. No animals were hurt in the writing of this
response -- unless you count my dog who desperately wants
to go outside now.

"renwok" wrote in message
om...
"KrisHur" wrote in message
...
There has been considerable discussion on garden software over the past
few
years and the consensus is it doesn't exist--yet.

I've used Sierra and Broderbund, both stink. Sierra crashes a lot and
both
are OK if you are designing a whole landscape of trees and bushes, but
absolutely stink when trying to design perennial beds and/or vegetable
gardens.

Paper and colored pencils really are better. For each bed, I take 4
pieces
of paper and label them Spring, Early Summer, M/L Summer and Fall.
Circles
are the plants, they are colored in with their bloom color on the
corresponding sheet and are colored in green on the sheet when not in
bloom.
It's worked well for me.

See, what we need is somthing to show in semi realism what changes
might look like. Not everyone can visualize with their mind what
somthing looks like on a sheet of paper. Just as some people like to
get a walk thru of their house before its built, i'd like to be able
to show people what their yard would look like before its done.


Yours,

k31


That would be nice.

Sierra's walkthrough is so cartoony and the flowers look *nothing* like the
plant it's supposed to represent.

Why programmers won't get a good program together? Soooo many people would
buy it.

I hear Flowerscape is ok but has a very limited list of plants.

--
Kristen
Zone 6, SE NY