Computer program for gardens?

[HH]

This question has probably been asked before, but I'm new to the newsgroup. Is there a computer program in which one can set up a garden layout in the program and identify plants by location? That is, I want a birds-eye view of the garden, with each plant shown by an ID of some sort in its proper place. The ID symbols would be listed elsewhere and the plant identified. I have drawings of the garden, with the various plants identified in the beds, but when I add new plants and transplant others, the drawings become hopelessly muddled. Any advice would be most appreciated.

Harlan

[Hound Dog]

Go to Amazon.com and select "Software" than type in "gardens" or some other identifier. I have seen a number of these software packages touted there. Don't know how good they are...but there you go.

[Frogleg]

Are you familiar with the Google facility to search groups? Rec.gardens is archived there, and you can locate discussions of many common topics.

As you will read if you search the group, the most often given answer is "no." Using a spreadsheet, or graph paper and a pencil seems to be the way most organized gardeners go about keeping track of their plants.

[Larry Blanchard]

I've used one called "3D Landscape" by Sierra. It does that IIRC, and lets you rotate the drawing in three dimensions. The plants "grow" and can be shown by season.

That said, once I used it a couple of times for a major project, I went back to 2D pencil on a CAD generated outline :-).

[DavesVideo]

is "no." Using a spreadsheet, or graph paper and a pencil seems to be the way most organized gardeners go about keeping track of their plants. >>

I wouldn't bother to look for software that specific. Basically any draw program on your computer will work.

Dave

[HH]

My needs would not be very complex. If I understand correctly, a "drawing program" sounds like what I might need. I'm not familiar with drawing programs. Can you suggest one or two. Many thanks.

Harlan

[dr-solo]

I think they have typical landscape designer plant symbols in a plastic that you can stick onto a special material page and then pick em up and move them around. I would think that kind of thing would be great. Ingrid

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[Salty Thumb]

"HH" wrote in news:U8Knd.363409$wV.230289@attbi_s54:

If you are using a Mac there's an old program called Hypercard that might do that, I forget. It's a generic program, not specific to gardens. Otherwise, most draw programs can do what you want except maybe the relational database part.

[Frogleg]

If you have a PC, one of the 'accessory' applications is 'Paint,' which is *very* simple. You might try fooling around with it and see if it will meet your needs. Paint Shop Pro is a full-featured graphics program that's about $120 for the latest version.

[Bill Oliver]

An excellent alternative that gives most of the functionality of Photoshop (though it *is* different) is GIMP (the GNU Image Manipulation Program), and it is free at

For Visio-type symbol-based diagrams, take a look at Dia at

There is an installer for Windoze. Unfortunately, I don't think a garden symbol style sheet has been created yet -- though you can make and install one yourself if so inclined (and can donate it to the general library).

billo