How to Buy Landscape Garden-Design Software for Home Use

Design your own landscape with garden-design software.

A landscape garden-design application for the home or do-it-yourself designer will produce designs only as good as the person creating them. Many landscape garden-design software packages are on the market. Unfortunately, most of them are very limited in scope and capabilities. Do your research before buying one. The programs in this review are not the only good ones out there, but they rate highly with many reviewers. If you want to design your own garden, examine the options and your needs before buying.

Difficulty:

Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. Your Complete Landscape and Garden Designer (DVD-ROM) is one of the better programs on the market for home use. The package, which runs on Windows XP, includes LandDesigner 3D, Photo Garden Designer, Garden Encyclopedia, Landscape Design Guide and Designer Garden Library. There is a bit of a leaning curve, but is is one of the easier to use with built-in flexibility and a lot of good features.

2. Punch! Super Home Suite 3 rates highly and offers a lot of versatility. It is a bit more complicated than some other programs and has a somewhat limited plant choice, but you can get a nice general design out of it. The suite includes 3D home design, 3D Landscaping, Estimating, AutoFramingT, FloorPlan TraceT, 3D Furniture DesignT and RealModelr. This company's software has features that let you grow your skills as your designing experience increases.

3. Chief Architect Home Designer Suite 10 is probably the closest software program you will find to a professional landscape or garden-design software. This one has good 3-D walk-around, design tools and you can actually import your own plant images.