01.Introduction
In brief
- Garden design software is more than just a landscape design tool. Many products also include a comprehensive plant encyclopedia and care and maintenance advice.
- Most of the garden design software packages we tested didn’t provide extensive information on Australian conditions, such as plant suitability to local seasons and soil types.
Can’t get the Backyard Blitz team over to your place to clean up the garden? If your backyard resembles overgrown bushland, you could either employ a professional landscaper to give it a makeover or try the cheaper, do-it-yourself approach — garden design software.
Landscaping software lets you map out garden beds, lawns, barbeque areas and other features onscreen. But the real beauty lies in the plant catalogue and encyclopedia.
You’ll be able to plan all aspects of your garden — right down to the types of plants — as well as prepare for the coming months using the software’s care and maintenance advice.
Most programs also produce a three-dimensional view so you can have an idea of how your new garden will look in reality.
We trialled four garden design software products to determine how easy they are to use and whether they’re suitable to Australian users. We dish the dirt on how garden design software can help you, and which ones our triallists liked best.
Please note: this information was current as of January 2007 but is still a useful guide to today's market.
Brands tested
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Broderbund 3D Home Landscape Designer Deluxe 5
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DiComp Garden Composer
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GSP Geoff Hamilton's Garden Designer
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Punch! Master Landscape and Home Design
How we tested
We trialled four garden design software products to determine how easy they are to use and whether they’re suitable to Australian users.
Five intermediate computer users with an interest in gardening tried each product for about one-and-a-half hours over a three-day period. They were asked to design a garden with specified dimensions and features such as a lawn, plant bed, edging, several varieties of plants, a paved section, fence and gate, footpath, and a water feature.
In a separate assessment, our expert tester evaluated the features and ease of installation of each product.
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