What do we use?
We have been using Adobe PhotoShop, Fireworks, Flash, and CorelDraw for years and are comfortable playing around to get what we need from them. We are currently looking at Garden Management System, CS Garden Designer and Plant Finder - they are all very different tools, useful for different purposes.
If you are not an experienced gardener, choosing plants for your garden can be tricky, so an alternative is to buy a ready made planting plan or if you want something completely designed especially for your garden, maybe consider going for a customised garden planting plan. This means you get straight to planting rather than trying to work out how software works, then trying to choose which plants you want for your garden.
The Plant Finder is an excellent UK produced program and is suitable for amateur and professional gardeners - even if you don't know plant names, you can search for suitable plants for your garden using filters like colour and season of interest. and there is a lot of care information and advice on pests etc. We think this is the best all round product for gardeners of all levels.
Ideas Genie Pro and Garden Management System look like they should be good for keen gardeners. Garden Management System is effectively a skeleton for you to build with, Ideas Genie Pro seems to have more features and comes with a master plant database to get you started, hence the difference in price. George Kelly, the designer and developer of Ideas Genie offers an online support forum but stresses that his software is not for complete garden novices - a little knowledge can go a long way here and complete beginners might be a little overwhelmed.
CS Garden Designer, because of its cost is probably for professional garden designers and landscapers. Also, from what we have seen, the best way to get started is with some sort of training package - that said, if you are investing in your business, then it makes sense to budget for the training so that you get the best start possible. CS designer does not have a visualisation tool, but with the AutoCAD drawing engine you have the best foundation. Many programs use the AutoCAD engine as their starting point.
If you need to produce plans at architectural standard, then think about CS Garden Designer - it is available under yearly license - I guess you'd need to budget about £1500 + £1000 for training to get off to a good start. and then you pay a license each year which gives you program updates, access to the Plant databse and continued use of the AutoCAD engine.
Other options include programs like VectorWorks, or a program on top of AutoCAD - for example, buy AutoCAD and then buy GlobalCAD to use as an add-on.
VectorWorks starts just under £1000, and from the demo we looked at, again some form of training is essential because, unless we missed something, the support documentation wasn't that helpful to us.
I am often puzzled when people say they want software for their business but baulk at paying £100, let alone £1000 - I am not saying that expensive software is necessary, but if you are willing to base your business on software, but don't want to spend any money, then how seriously do you take your business?
Whatever you choose - expensive or cheap - there is a learning curve and time to be spent. For cheap garden design software, there is probably not any training; if you are buying expensive software, then definitely budget for training either in the form of CD home study or classroom based instruction - some of these programs are brilliant, but getting started can be a headache.
Something else to consider is your computer - does it have the guts for the job. Always check the system requirements and beware of 'minimum requirements' - software might run with 64mb of RAM, but you have to allow for everything else that is running on your machine - with all the other programs, there could be a lot less than the minimum requirement and you might grow old before your machine chugs its way to the end of a 3D rendering job.
Definitely DO NOT plan on producing immediate results that are suitable for clients - producing satisfactory results can take time.
No software provider guarantees results - that is impossible, and you will find that the vast majority have disclaimers about this - how you run your business is down to you, not the people who supply the software. For example, we use software for our store, but the company have a disclaimer that they make no guarantee that it works!
buy planting plans
Potting apron
Padded kneelers
Gardeners' skin care
Garden software - Conclusion:
Whatever your garden software choice - software does not make a gardener; it can help with some tasks, but is not a universal panacea - sometimes it is nice to have a sketch, other times you might want a drawing or a combination of the two. If you can't draw, then software may help with its symbols and pictures; but if you can draw, then you might find that you want to use software for some things and sketch for others.
If you need to produce plans for hard landscaping or to architectural standards, then you need some good CAD software - for other plans and basic design drawings, you may not need that.
Put your software spend into perspective:
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£10 - gets you a round of drinks and some crisps.
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£100 - is an average dinner out for four people.
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£1000 - one week holiday or a very cheap second hand car.
I am not trying to compare £1000 software with a dodgy motor, rather, that it is surprising that people will pay for one thing but complain about paying for another - we have had old cars that have seemed better than new ones, and the beer served in one pub can better than another... it's all a matter of taste. The same goes for software.
For professional software, work out how many jobs you'll need to do to pay for your software and training - by factoring this in, what initially appears as a ridiculous cost, can suddenly look a lot more like a good investment rather than an unrealistic expense.
If you are thinking about technology, then remember the story about Russia and the USA.
I'm not sure if it's true but it goes something like this:
During the Cold War, Russia and the USA were having a 'space race'.
Well, apparently, the Americans were determined to develop a pen that would work in zero gravity and they assigned a dedicated team of specialists to work on the problem. Eventually, they made a breakthrough - it had cost a small fortune and untold hours of work, but they had made something that would work - a zero gravity pen.
The Russians, being a very pragmatic people, and because they had a much more limited budget than the Americans, decided on a different approach to the problem... they took a pencil instead.
Just because software is available does not mean it is always the best solution. Also, what suits one person could be completely wrong for someone else - if you are spending a lot of money and the software is business critical, then do put questions to the developers before you buy - if you don't feel comfortable with the answers you get, then look elsewhere.
For very expensive software, ask the developers if it is possible to speak with some of their users - find out how existing users are getting on and how easy it was for them to get started.