Gardening is a natural activity to have software written to help with all that information, recording, and planning. I've seen a dozen or so titles over the past several years and tried them all. Most suffer from being written for the US market and getting half hearted UK treament, those are all dismal. The 'plants for a purpose' databases woefully limited, the pest and diseases sections pre-occupied with Groundhogs and Gophers and the garden design section only any use if your plot is square or rectangular on level ground!
There is one offering that stands head and shoulders above anything else out there and I'm pleased to say it's British through and through. Complete Gardens has been around for 6 years now so has matured into an extensive resource for gardeners. It's packed with quality information and high quality images - no surprise as Neil Bromhall (the MD)
was a cameraman on the 'Private Life of Plants' series.
The big news is that Complete Gardens is about to make a huge leap that will please gardeners no end. Instead of installing from CD and getting updates the same way the whole package and updates will be available through the Internet via dynamic streaming. The alliance of Endeavors technology and Complete Gardens has made this whole project possible. Gardeners will benefit as they have instant access to better quality plant photos, up-to-date info, faster searching and loading and no hassle with CDs. For the technicals you can take a look at Landscapejuice where Phil has expounded at length for those who are keen on finding out what's under the bonnet.
The streaming application is live now, just in time for a big Chelsea launch and for the gardening season.
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