Comparing and choosing landscape and garden software can be difficult because of things like the variation in products and your experience with other programs - technical ability can also play a part. Things like ease of use and learning can make a big difference. What I mean is, if you know how to do something, then it is easy to think a program is great - but, if you are struggling because the instructions are complex or the program is difficult to navigate, then people's experience of the same program can be very different.
Then you need to consider the functionality on offer - just because a program says it can do something does not mean it is easy or that the results will be satisfactory. Think about the output you want to achieve and try and see some samples.
Programs seem to concentrate or excel in different areas.
For example:
Complete Gardens Plant Finder is a tool for finding the right plant and putting it in the right place and it provides plant care and pruning info as well as information on pests and diseases, but you cannot add your own plant records.
Deeproot Plant Base Encyclopedia a fully editable plant database with over 10,000 plant records that is easy to use and can be downloaded or ordered on DVD.
Garden Management System (GMS) is not meant for designing a garden, it is specifically designed as a record keeping and garden maintenance tool for the plants in your garden - it is designed for users to build a personal library and journal based on their own gardens and plants.
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Garden Plant Encyclopedia
For business professionals, a high level CAD (Computer Aided Design) program based on the industry standard AutoCAD engine amy be the way to go.
Trying to compare these programs would be like trying to compare a hammer and a nail - the hammer and nail are quite different, but used together you get something useful.
For example:
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Plant Finder helps you to create the right plant list.
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Garden Management System allows you to create plant records and maintenance notes for the plant lists you create.
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Good landscape software allows you to design the hard and soft landscape plan to accommodate the plants.
If you are looking for a new garden design, the other alternative is to buy a ready made garden planting plan or consider a custom planting plan from a gardening expert.
If you want to go the do it yourself route, lets take a look at some of the functionality you might be thinking of...
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So what elements do you need?
CAD or Drawing
For design work, you need some kind of drawing package.
For basic drawing, you might get away with the free Windows Paint program that comes installed with Microsoft Windows OS, or you could use a vector graphics program or a program that is supposed to be dedicated to garden design - in the main, this usually means a basic drawing package that has been customised to suit gardening tasks.
With a little patience, the same can usually be achieved with standard vector graphics programs.
Don't forget the simplest technology - pencil and paper - sometimes that can be best.
If you need a complete CAD design package that produces 3D projections of 2D plans at architectural standard, then you need to buy high-end software like AutoCAD or some other package specially designed for the job.
Another alternative for planting plans is to use one of the myriad of vector graphics tools like CorelDraw or Adobe Illustrator. The only thing with 'general' graphics programs is that whilst they have superlative drawing features, they are not specifically designed for planting plans, but they can usually be adapted to suit your needs.
Plant Finder
What about 3D garden design?
You get what you pay for here - we have looked at some cheaper software that purportedly offers 3D effects - we found that the conversion from 2D to 3D could have some interesting effects like windows being suspended in mid-air.
Some other programs offer 3D, but would be better called 'visualisation' since what you do is import a digital photograph and then edit that background and overlay plant images to give an idea of how your planting plan might turn out.
This can be useful for presentations, but if you want to create perfect photo-montages and a completely realistic overlay blending objects into pictures (think Tom Hanks meeting the president in Forrest Gump), then Adobe PhotoShop is the way to go. From a personal perspective - we buy specific tools for specific tasks and to spend £500 or £1000 on one piece of software is not unusual. For example, Photoshop currently retails at around £586 and is the industry standard for digital image manipulation.
There are various options for plant visualisation; something to consider is how the graphics are handled - you need plenty of layers and the option to move plant photos around - if the program allows you to import an image, but then fixes that image in place when you import another, then if you are like us, that will get very aggravating - we like to keep moving things around until we are happy.
Conversion to 3D Projection
For quality conversion, you will need to spend some money - maybe something with an AutoCAD engine like VectorWorks or GlobalCAD.
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Plant Library and database
If you want to create your ultimate personal plant database from scratch, Microsoft Access or MySQL could be what you need. Of course, you will also need either extensive plant knowledge or an information resource as well as the ability to create the database.
The alternative is to buy a standalone plant database or library. There are excellent resources available for under £50 - for the time and effort involved in creating something from scratch, a plant database is usually money well spent.
Something to consider when you buy is whether the resource can be customised - Garden Management System allows you to create your own records and associate as many photos as you want with a particular plant record. Some programs only allow you to look up records and not customise or edit, other programs might allow you to edit, but only allow one picture to be added.
Complete Gardens Plant Finder allows you to create your own notes and plant lists.
Garden bags
So what does it all mean?
Ultimately, you usually get what you pay for - the question is:
Can you make the software do what you want?
You might be lucky and pick up a £10 software package off the shelf that does what you need - at the other end of the scale you could spend several thousand pounds on something with an AutoCAD engine and the associated training and then find you don't like the application!
If you are used to modern graphics programs, then some of the cheaper garden design software will be disappointing in the limitations - for example, if you have used AutoCAD, Illustrator, CorelDraw or Photoshop level software, then you will be used to seeing the best software and associated features.
So... 'How do you compare software?'
I think that depends on what you are used to working with and what you want to achieve. The more software you have used, the easier it is to know what you are happy working with - if you have no experience, it is guesswork - do some searches for user reviews, see if there are any user groups or forums, and take a look at FAQ and Help pages.
One way to approach it is to list what you need to achieve, then tick off boxes and see what gives you the closest match.
You can choose entry level software that tries to offer a lot, or software that specialises - the conclusion is going to depend on what you want, how much effort you want to put in, and how much you are willing to invest. Of course, you wouldn't spend as much time thinking about software that costs £15 as that which costs £1500.
So far, we have not found a single program that does exactly what we want - for us, we are finding it is best to have a selection of tools.
Choosing garden software - conclusion