Urban gardener: Computer says 'grow' by Cleve West. Independent Newspaper 25th October 2008
Cleve West Independent review Urban gardener: Comp
Urban gardener: Computer says 'Grow' Independent. by Cleve West
Saturday, 25 October 2008
Plant Finder & Pruning Guide from Complete Gardens
Some computer software that I have started using recently. No please don't turn over, this is actually quite interesting.
As much as I resent any time spent in front of a computer, the interactive Plant Finder & Pruning Guide from Complete Gardens will actually cut down some time in front of the screen and benefit my clients too with much more informative plant lists and maintenance schedules. There are 3,500 plants and 9,000 pictures on the CD-Rom with various ways of making selections (colours, conditions, flowering times, etc) that can be printed out (with notes, pruning and propagation advice, pests and diseases to watch out for) saving lots of time cross-referencing books. I'm not saying it will stop me buying more books for my sagging shelves but as a work tool (my assistant Humaira will love it) it's brilliant and it's British so it won't throw up lists that will have you trawling through plants that will only grow in Madagascar.
I should tell you that it's not for the exclusive use of garden designers who don't know as much as they should about gladioli. Anyone, amateur or enthusiast, who can click a mouse button can use it to make lists of plants in their own garden with all the information they need to maintain it. And get this. Click on any clematis species and it will show you the correct time and method for pruning. Seeing as I know many experienced gardeners who are as rusty as I am on clematis groups and how to tackle them it's worth getting the CD just for that.
Of course I couldn't resist seeing if it had Gladiolus papilio. It has. It also has another six that, I must admit, are actually quite attractive.
Best New Product Award 2006 - Home & Gift -Complete Gardens CD-ROM Ltd
Complete Gardens CD-ROM - Best New Product Award
Complete Gardens plant selector & pruning guide encyclopaedia CD-ROM wins Best New Product Award - Home & Gift section. Glee Trade Show
Glee New Products comprises a series of 14 prestigious awards judged independently by key industry figures, and recognises the very best new innovations from across the garden and leisure industries.
A Team of 15 expert judges representing the garden & leisure industries studied the credentials of more than 280 Glee New Product entries in 14 categories.
To reach their decisions the judging team rated each product entry against a spread of exacting commercial and practical criteria. Considerations included product innovation, design and originality; how well products met consumer needs; and any unique features or technologies setting the product apart from competitors. Products were also judged for quality, fitness for purpose, environmental impact, value for money and variety of packaging considerations.
Each of the judges commentated on their selection as follows:
Home & Gift Category – Judy Stevens (Flower Magazine)
"The Complete Gardens Plant Selector & Pruning Guide CD-ROM offers plant advice based on lots of criteria, allowing room for your own notes and plant lists. At £27.00, it makes an excellent gift.
A clear winner.
Computer Shopper- Garden Software Best Buy Complete Gardens
Top 5 Star Rating
March 2007
Like the other encyclopedias, this software includes a database of plants that can be searched by name or by a combination of characteristics. Unlike the other packages, however, it also lets you search by plant use or interest and there are options such as autumn colours, berries and cottage-style gardens.The database includes thousands of UK plants. There's no shortage of photographs. Second, and most importantly, the emphasis is on the practical, so for each plant, there's information on planting, plant care, pruning, pests and diseases. The information is extensive - many plants include six pages on pruning alone. The garden style guide includes 28 styles. Each style includes a photo and, as you move the pointer over the image, plants are highlighted and their names appear. Double-clicking a name takes you to its entry. You can maintain lists of plants you want and plants you have, and a diary reminds you when your plants need attention. There are many educational articles and an online search facility for suppliers of plants on your wanted list.
Computer Active
5 Star 'BUY IT' review. 2006
Complete gardens offers an excellent mix of quality and attention to detail, designed specifically for gardens in the UK. While it is more expensive than its rivals, this software delivers genuine value for gardeners of all levels.
At the core of its operation is the plant finder. Searching through the 3,000-odd plants can be done in a number of ways, including by name, leaf type, soil type, life cycle and colour. Search criteria can be customised on the left of the screen, with matching results displayed on the right.
It is clear that plenty of care has gone into the descriptions of each plant, and the needs of gardeners in the UK is borne in mind throughout. Each plant description is accompanied by practical advice on planting and pruning, and the high-quality photographs help to illustrate seasonal change.
The program can be used on either a PC or Mac, and is run directly from the CD, so no hard disk space is required.
Complete Gardens has everything for garden enthusiasts, whatever their level, and is of particular value because of its UK focus.
Daily Mail. Chris Beardshaws Little Gems
Chris Beardshaw pick his Little Gems
This CD-ROM has everything you need for successful gardening
Garden Answers August 2006
Garden Answers Review 2006
Review by Michelle Urquhart
There have been quite a few gardening CD-ROMs on the market over the years. Most claim to be the only gardening guide you'll ever need - and most are not! So I'm pleased to say I was pleasantly surprised by Complete Gardens.
Primarily the CD-ROM is a plant selector, with 2,700 plants on the database. Once you start playing around with all the functions you quickly find quite in-depth plant care advice including, step-by-step illustrations of pruning, as well as a function to store notes about plants in your garden.
For me the plant selector was most exciting part of this CD-ROM.
Plant Selector
There are three ways to search for a plant: by characteristics, by Type (e.g Fern, Rose, Clematis) and by Use (e.g Autumn colour, climber).
Searching by characteristics was the most fun option. In this screen you can enter anything you're looking for in a plant, such as flower and leaf colour, period of interest, soil type, growth habit and height etc.
Once you've got your search results, click on any of the plants to get the full details. For each plant there are impressive notes on pruning, planting, feeding, pest, diseases and full attributes (flowering time, soil requirements etc.)
Other functions
Plant Lists.
When you've found a plant you'd like, you can add it to your plant list. Your list can be of 'plants I have' or 'plants I want', so it's either an interactive record of what's in your garden, or a shopping list of what you'd like to be there! Clicking on the shopping trolley icon will take you to the Complete Gardens website, which lists suppliers for the plants on your list.
Once you start exploring this CD-ROM there are many other functions, including a place to write notes about your plants. There's also a calendar function, which flags up any jobs that need doing.
Verdict.
This is a fun CD-ROM to use, but also educational. It's designed to help you choose the most appropriate plants for your garden, showing what you can grow where. It is also a good way to keep track of what is in your garden already.
Would I use it on a regular basis? Yes, I think I would, particularly to plan a new garden.
What help is available?
Use the help icon or, if your get really stuck, a free helpline is available.
THE SUNDAY TIMES
Complete Gardens is a home grown product
David Hewson's insider view
You have to give the people behind Complete Gardens credit. They know their stuff, not least when it comes to red hot pokers. How many types are thriving in your garden? Explore this CD-ROM & you could find no fewer that 12, each with detailed description, a lovely photograph and comprehensive growing advice. Many gardening discs available over here are imported American monstrosities that assume we all have to guard against armadillos and raccoons. Complete Gardens is a home grown product that acts as an all-singing all-dancing guide to more than 2,500 shrubs, flowers and vegetables suited to the British climate.
A formidable plant encyclopaedia, this CD-ROM has been compiled with astonishing care. Each variety is minutely described, with advice on soil, position and possible insect & disease problems. If you have a specific look in mind but are unsure how to achieve it, you work your way backwards by searching for example, for something large, pink in a shady spot in September. There is also generic guides to horticultural styles, such as cottage gardens, and interactive calendar that can tell you when & how to prune.
This is a handy electronic tool for the green-fingered, or anyone who wants a red hot poke that's different from the neighbours'.
Computer Buyer 'Best Buy'
Top 6 Star rating "Complete Gardens the best garde
Complete Gardens is the best gardening program we've tested.
If you have a garden, you need a copy of this program. It takes out all the guesswork out of buying and caring for your plants and shrubs.
Load up Complete gardens, tap a few keys, and you'll be presented with a page telling you exactly how to prune your plant. Plain and simple. And that's what Complete gardens is - a plain and simple guide to growing and developing your garden. The program helps you in several ways. Firstly, if you've got a brown square of earth in desperate need of brightening up, it will help you pick the plants that are most likely to flourish. Here the program uses a clever system of sliders that you move from left to right to describe the nature of the garden. Is its soil wet or dry, acid or alkaline? Shaded or in full bright sun? How tall should the plant grow? Complete Gardens takes these inputs, and produces a list of shrubs and flowers which should fit the bill and also flourish in your garden.
Click on any plant you fancy and you're whisked to the program's real strength - its huge plant database. Each of the 3,000 plants detailed in the program are described in the most useful, clear and succinct way - there's no Internet-style information overload here. Everything you need to know about a plant is written to fit into a page or two.
The program also has the most beautiful photographs of the plant being discussed. In total there are over 7,500 pictures and the ones we looked at were fantastic.
We also liked the way the program details plant names. It doesn't just tell you the plant names English: and Greek or Latin. It also explains that the posh ones mean. For example ;rhododendron' comes from the Greek 'rhodos' meaning rose and 'dendron' meaning tree. Along with these details you'll also find succinct information about how to care for your chosen plant. The program tells you how often a plant likes to be watered and fed, which blights and pests are likely to attack it and what you should do if they visit.
All this adds up to making Complete Gardens the best gardening program we've tested. If you're in the market for a program of this type, you really should buy it.
If you already own a copy of Complete gardens, you can buy an upgrade disc for £12. This will give you access to the enlarged plant database which this newer version offers.
Computer Shopper
Top 5 Star rating - Oct 2005
'Well presented information to help you look after your plants'
'The information is extensive'
This software includes a database of plants that can be searched by name or by a combination of characteristics. Unlike other packages it also lets you search by plant use or interest and there are options such as autumn colours, berries and cottage-style etc.
There's no shortage of photographs and most importantly, the emphasis is on the practical, so for each plant, there's information on planting, plant care, pruning, pests and diseases. The information is extensive - many plants include 28 styles. Each style includes a photo and, as you move the pointer over the image, plants are highlighted and their manes appear. Double-click a name takes you to its entry.
You can maintain lists of plants you want and plants you have, and a diary reminds you when your plants need attention. There are many educational articles and an online search facility for suppliers of the plants on your wants list.
BBC Gardeners' World Magazine
Pick of the Best
This CD-ROM is a great resource, packed with useful information about plants.
There's no scrimping on supporting images either, as there are more than 7,000 photographs stored on disc.
This CD is a pleasure to use, as the sign-posting is clear. Head to the garden style and you are offered a choice of interactive designs, such as cottage gardens. Position the mouse over the garden pictures and click on any of the plants to reveal details of their attributes.
You will also find information on pests, diseases and weeds, and many garden articles. Click on the link to a dedicated website for even more details.
The Times
Best of the Bunch
Times writers chose their top gardening books of the year.
By Mark Griffiths
For proof that the old ways aren't necessarily the best, pick up the CD-Rom Complete Gardens.
It does not purport to design your garden for you, nor does it carry
the posthumous imprimatur of a much-missed gardening guru; but it does
catalogue and describe hundreds of fine garden plants, and tell you via an engine of serious niftiness how best to grow and use them. And it features the startlingly lovely photography of the Emmy-winning cameraman Neil Bromhall.
Alfresco Magazine - Insider Trading
An ingenious piece of software even an idiot could
As the role of technology in gardening continues to increase, Complete Gardens CD-ROM Ltd has come up with an ingenious piece of software even an idiot could use.
Complete Gardens plant finder, plant care & gardening guide is a CD-ROM which allows you to easily design and manage a colourful and interesting garden throughout the year.
Aimed at both the novice and keen gardener alike in Britain, this quality garden planner finds plants by name, colour, month, location, soil type, scent and even rabbit proof plants! The visual CD contains over 7,000 photographs and illustrations to show plant changes through the seasons.
The plant care information, illustrated pruning tips, and personal calendar ensure your garden flourishes and look its best. An incredible piece of gardening software.
Butterfly Conservation Society
'The information on individual plants is superb'
This CD-ROM well deserves its title 'complete'. It has very extensive lists of plants, with 120 alone being listed as of interest to butterflies.
Quick and easy to use, it is as accessible as a book but offers so much more. You can use its database to sort plants according to soil type, sun/shade and dry/moist growing requirements.
Viewing a selection of plants of a chosen colour is speedily and effortless, and a boon to both amateur gardener and professional designer. The information on individual plants is superb, sometimes with four different illustrations and interesting information such as how the species' scientific name was derived and, if appropriate, culinary and medical uses.
A simple click reveals horticultural requirements: click again and there is the facility to build up lists of plants you have got or more importantly ones you want. Be inspired by the beautiful illustrations and the articles on specialist topics from experts in their field, including Jenny Steel writing about butterflies and wildlife in general. And bear in mind that an update is already in preparation.
This excellent CD-ROM is a work in progress.
The Oxford Times - Limited Edition
a massive database of plants of all types
Complete Gardens contains a huge amount of information and details of 2,500 gardens plants. It is, in effect, a massive database of plants of all types, in to which you can enter your requirements such as flowering time or colour, winter interest, or your soil conditions.
If you have children, poisonous plants can be excluded from your search or you can select wildlife-friendly plants.
You can find out how to care for or prune every plant, which pests it maybe susceptible to, when it flowers or fruits and much more.
Every plant has several high quality photographs to illustrate it. Different garden style such as formal or cottage can be viewed, with suggestions of species for that particular style.
Plants that you are especially interested in can be added to a notepad list and a personalised schedule can be produced to remind you how and when to prune or mulch those you have selected.
Finally Complete Gardens can be used as a plant finder, helping you via the associated website, to find a nursery or garden centre that stocks any plant that interests you.
Complete Gardens will continue to grow and be updated, and additional CD's are being produced at regular intervals. Each of these will contain information about a further 500 plants. More specialist CDs will also be produced over time with information on wildflowers, container plants, grasses, roses, or clematis....
For anyone with a computer, this can build up into a huge reference library of plants and gardening.
Complete Gardens is the perfect compliment to the gardening books already on our shelves,".
Gifts for the Girls
Review 2005
Are you planning a new garden or revamping an existing one? This CD-ROM
is effectively a complete encyclopedia of plants, with fantastic search
fascilities to enable you to find the right plant of the colour and
size for the right location in your garden, to flower at the right time
of year. Plant care and pruning advice accompanies every plant.
Unbelievably easy to use, it is ideal whether you are trying to plan a
whole garden or simply find out more about individual plants. Search by
common name, Latin name, flower/leaf colour, month, season, soil type,
aspect, hardiness and height. Over 7,000 photographs, so many more than
can fit in a book. The interactive CD-ROM is PC & MAC compatible
Perfect Homes
In the Know
When it comes to buying
new plants, it's easy to get a little nervous- particularly if
you want to try something different.
That's where the Complete gardens CD-ROM
comes in. Full of plants that are ideal for the UK climate, this
helpful garden planner is perfect for the novice and expert alike.
The Daily Telegraph
Telegraph Gardening
Years in the making, this CD-Rom supplies information on thosands of garden plants and is illustrated with over 7,000 photographs. ..
It does have useful plant care advice and a garden styles page which shows you how to get a certain look. The explanations of Latin names are a bonus.
