Better Homes and Gardens Landscaping and Deck Designer 7.0 [OLD VERSION]

Review by Paul J. Furio for Better Homes and Gardens Landscaping and Deck Designer 7.0 [OLD VERSION]
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I picked this up in the hopes of visualizing some possible landscape options for our front and back yard without having to pay a professional landscaping firm for a consult.

First, the good. The tutorial videos are straightforward, easy to follow, and easy to learn from. The user interface is also pretty good, and I managed to make a reasonable approximation of our house in under 20 minutes. There’s also a ton of trees, plants, shrubs, and so on, and the “zone finder” is very helpful in narrowing down what will grow in your particular area.

Now the bad. If your yard is at all hilly in an unusual way, that is, if it’s not perfectly flat or gently sloped, you’re going to have a nearly impossible time getting your yard laid out with this software unless you have a degree in cartography. I consider myself pretty bright, and pretty adept with maps, and I still cannot manage to lay out my yard correctly with this software. Given, I have an unusual yard. The driveway slopes down, but the front yard remains level until it hits a 5′ retaining wall. The back yard has at least three distinct levels. Still, this software claims it can handle odd yards, but it does a poor job at it.

Second, if your tastes in landscaping run to the extreme, hire a professional. There’s plenty of “garden variety” gardens in this software, but if you’re looking for unusual water features, perhaps asian-inspired accents (very popular here in the Pacific NW), look elsewhere. While heavy on plants, decks, and lawn furniture, anything unique or slightly out of the ordinary isn’t included here. My own design called for a basalt fountain. Not to be found, even for download on the website. And oddly shaped stone patios? Don’t even try, unless you want to individually model every stone. You may as well just skip the software and get right to real landscaping.

For a vast majority of people going with very tried and true, non-experimental and non-extreme landscaping designs, this will probably be very adequate software. Want to arrange some flowers, trees, and bushes on your mostly flat yard? This is money well spent if you have no talent with pen and paper. However, if you’re looking for a solution to unlock your hidden creatvitiy, look to a professional, or stick with your existing artistic skills in the medium of your choice.

Review by Monica L. Hughes for Better Homes and Gardens Landscaping and Deck Designer 7.0 [OLD VERSION]
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I am enjoying this product. It was not hard to get the basics set up, except for the elevation levels for the terrain. However, with some experimenting and some reading, I was pretty much “designing” within a few days (I work, so this was play time). I am not terribly computer savy, but was able, through trial and error, to use the software in a relatively short period of time.

Main drawback is the limited number of plants in the menu. Most of the standard plants are available, but I am looking for a download that would bring in additional plants.

All in all, I feel that if I can do this, and enjoy it as much as I have, just about anyone can feel confident about buying it. I am pleased.

Review by M. Kirkpatrick for Better Homes and Gardens Landscaping and Deck Designer 7.0 [OLD VERSION]
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The software has good tutorials and is fairly easy to use. It was difficult trying to layout a non-square plot plan. I would have liked a larger tree / plant selection for my area (Colorado) as I live in a covenant controlled community that only allow certain types of landscaping. Overall a good piece of software.

Review by Laurin B. Morrison for Better Homes and Gardens Landscaping and Deck Designer 7.0 [OLD VERSION]
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Possibly a great product for designing a home, but not so great for gardens. What a gardener needs is a plan that will print out easily with the plant labels marked on the plan so you can carry it out to the garden and know where to put which plants. This product creates blank circles for plants that are approximately the width your plants will be, but no labels unless you add a text label. If you then decide to re-arrange the garden plan, you have to move the plant and then move the label — twice the work. Also, NEVER, NEVER, NEVER use their plant “aging” feature. If you correctly listed the width of your plants originally as they will be full-grown, the aging feature will change them permanently.

Also be aware that you cannot place plants in the “raised beds” available as a landscape feature. If you then use their 3-D imaging, the raised beds are really raised … on top of whatever plants you placed in them on your plan. A raised bed sitting on top of 10 tomato plants looks interesting in 3 D to say the least.

It’s an okay program, but difficult to use, and you have to buy the additional plant library if you want anything more than the basics. Good customer service.

Review by Iyansi for Better Homes and Gardens Landscaping and Deck Designer 7.0 [OLD VERSION]
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For the money, it’s worth it. Though I must advise – it’s easier to create your design from scratch or use their pre-installed plans as your starting point, than to upload your own images. You’ll have to take time to learn how to use the features but that’s true of any software. The plant library is not exhaustive and they could have added a wider range of garden furniture and ornaments.