Re: Garden Software

Carol

Try this.

Ian

What A Little Bird Told Me!

Ian E. Efford, Vice-Chair OVRGS

To tell you the truth, it wasn't a little bird but friends in an
Internet group that were discussing various CD-ROMs that they owned.  I
thought that a summary of their  opinions might be useful especially
during the winter when we have more time to spend reading and nowhere to
weed!.

Land Scape Design and Garden Design (Sierras): "quite good".

Complete Gardening (Microsoft): "you can search for plants according to
various characteristics, i.e. light and water requirements, colour, etc.
in order to plan your garden according to USDA zone specifications.  It
has a section for diagnosing problems, also garden tours' (pictures of
gardens from around the US with a narrator) describing the garden and
its features.  Also a plant encyclopaedia for just looking up a plant,
seeing a picture, and hearing its Latin name pronounced. I like being
able to print out a list of roses that will grow in shade and moist clay
or perennials that do not need watering.  To run the programme you need
a 486/33 and 8MB with Win 95 and 10MB HD.  It is fun to play with!"

Gardening Multimedia Handbook (CD Titles): "some basic gardening
information that appears to be edited from a 1960's British book, a
picture library, and a historic index of 150 plants.  Not worth the
money".  

Gardening-A Handbook for the Home Gardener by Chestnut: "a collection of
shareware programmes and some pictures and clip art".

Garden Companion (Lifestyle Software Group) "information and pictures on
over 1000 plants, a garden planning system for over 10 garden types to
include plant suggestions, garden scheduler for each type of garden,
listings of which plants you have or want for each garden type, and
music. Well worth the money".

Western Gardening Book (Sunset Magazine) "It seems to have all the
material that is in their book, with a handy access engine.  In addition
to just looking things up by name, you can ask for subjects like
fall-blooming purple perennials that don't need much water'.  It will
even pronounce flower names correctly.  Some of the climate is western
US specific but it is worthwhile, even if one lives in the east. 
Available in Windows or Mac.  It is great!" 

The Ultimate Garden Tool: "a collection of documents from agricultural
extension agencies, plant societies and private organizations.  It has a
built in search function, so that you can type an query like green
bugs' and you will get a list of documents relating to pests that are
green.  It covers annuals, perennials, landscape design, water
gardening, ... everything that you can think of.  A demo is available on
http://www.hortsoft.com.  Incredibly useful!"

Gardening Encyclopaedia (Books that Work): "I really like this one! I
like it a lot!  It allows you to keep a scrap-book of all of your plants
for easy reference and search with different criteria. Requires Win 3.1
or 95, 4MB RAM, 2MB HD and a VGA graphics"


Complete Guide to Gardening (Better Homes and Gardens): "Does many of
the same functions as Gardening Encyclopaedia except that it has videos
of instructional material (such as pruning a rose bush).  It is divided
into four sections - gardening fundamentals, garden types, gardening
index, and gardener's almanac.  It allows one to make personal notes on
a plant and search on several different criteria.  Available for PC and
Mac.  Very helpful!" 

FLOWERscape

This is a $60 Mac CD-ROM that has not been discussed but I noticed in a
recent magazine my son was reading.  It is to be used for designing
gardens in North America and recommends plants by region, colour, type,
etc.

Most of these CD-ROMs are available for between $30-60 and would be a
partial substitute for gardening during the long winter snows storms!

Hoping this information is useful.
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