Why Landscape Design Software, Why Landscape Vision?

Why Landscape Design Software?


Landscape design software gives you an accurate view of final plans before you invest time and money.

Change your mind as often as you like while planning your landscape, no cost associated with trial and error, experiment away!

Import a photo of your home or yard so you can plan your landscape around it.

You can build an accurate shopping list.

Resize plants, trees, etc.

Landscape design software is not just a gardening tool, it is fun!

What Makes Landscape Vision Software Different?

It is The Easiest To Use.

Award winning Plant Data Base (voted "Best Plant Data Base", by Top Ten Reviews)

Import images of Outdoor Living Products provided by our On-Line Vendors

Shop for these product right from your design

Import your own Plant Images

Free Flow Sketching. (Draw Garden Beds, Walkways, and Putting Greens)

Five Simple Steps To Creating Your Dream Landscape.

No Complicated CAD Drawings.

No Complicated Instruction Manuals.

No Need For Pages and Pages of "Frequently Asked Questions.

Easy To Navigate Help Feature.

Quick Fact Sheet.

Real Plant Pictures Not Renderings. (You do not want to see renderings on your lawn or in your garden. You want real pictures.)

Print Shopping List and Shop on-line right from your list and or design.

You Do Not Pay For More Software Then You Need!

24/7 Quick Response Support.

No other software lets you SEE, and easily SHOP for Outdoor Living products. Choice products from several popular on-line shopping sites.

See it, Buy it, in just a few easy steps!

Import your own images of ANYTHING!

Landscape Vision Software is for homeowners, gardeners, and landscapers , anyone who wants a simple fast way to see their ideas before they put spade to soil or purchase any outdoor living products and plants.

At Landscape Vision Software we know that gardeners and the weekend warrior, don't want to spend more time on computers, they want to be enjoying the outside.

Many of our competitors design software products are very difficult to use and expensive. Read their reviews. We believe landscape design doesn't need to be complicated, or expensive. Landscape Vision let's you easily see the possibilities, without being a computer whiz, all for under $40.00.
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Five Easy To Grow Perennials

The perennials that made this list were selected because they all share the following characteristics: they are easy to grow, they add an abundance of color, texture and shape to a garden, they thrive in gardens for a large part of the growing season, they are highly disease resistant and they are not finicky about the type of soil in which they are planted. And finally, although I would not go as far to label them as ‘drought resistant’, they have done beautifully in my garden for several years with minimal watering. Trust me, you can’t go wrong with these plants. They are truly what we in the gardening industry call “tough plants for tough times.”

1.Heuchera micrantha ‘Palace Purple’ (Coral Bells). Low growing burgundy leaved perennial that can be showcased in the front of a border. In my garden (Zone 6), it retains its leaves for four seasons out of the year. It looks stunning in combination with red, soft purple, blue or yellow flowers. Can be used in both sun and partial shade effectively. Zones 6-8

2.Knautia macedonica (scabiosa like flower). Grown for its abundance of deep crimson red, scabiosa like flowers. Blooms profusely (if continually dead headed) from late Spring until frost. Spreads rapidly. Attractive to bees. I use it ‘en masse’ in my garden to complement my soft pink digitalis (foxgloves) and echinacea. Zones 5-9

3.Calamagrostis x acutiflora ‘Karl Foerster’- (Reed Grass). Can be grown in sun or partial shade conditions. If grown in ideal conditions (moist soil), this grass can become invasive. Especially beautiful in the fall with its dense form and seedheads blowing in the breeze. Can be cut back to ground level in Spring. Zones 6-9

4.Macleya cordata (Plume Poppy). This perennial is one of the most attractive foliage plants on the market. Can be grown in sun or partial shade. Capable of growing as tall as 8 feet and spreads rapidly. I use it in the back of my borders for height and depth. Also blows beautifully in the breeze. Has the potential for being invasive so give it plenty of space. Zones 4-9

5.Eupatorium fistulosum (Joe Pye Weed). Grown for its dusky mauvish-purple large flowerheads that bloom from mid-summer through the fall. Thrives in sun and partial shade in the back of the border. Loves moisture. Grows 5-6 feet tall. Can be invasive in moist soil but is easily kept under control if divided every few years. Attractive to butterflies. Zones 3-8

Garden Tips for June

Any bedding plants you find for sale can safely be planted outdoors in beds, boxes, or containers.

The pros recommend treating tulips as annuals with the exception of species tulips. Painful as it may be, yank those tulips up, compost them, and plan to plant the bed anew in the fall.

If you long for a hanging basket filled with blossoms, compare prices on different-size plants. It may be more economical to buy several small plants and combine them yourself rather than pay for one large plant. Starting this month, keep hanging plants such as fuchsias well watered and out of direct sun, or their leaves will burn.

Plants that bloom now include balloon flower; Canterbury bells; clematis; coreopsis; delphiniums; English, painted, and Shasta daisies; foxgloves; Oriental poppies; and sweet William.

If you're growing June-bearing strawberries, pinch off all the flowers that bloom the first spring after planting. If not allowed to bear fruit, they will spend their food reserves on developing healthy roots.

Encourage young fruit trees to develop strong limbs and a wider crotch angle by weighing down the branches with clothespins.

Thin fruit trees by leaving 1 fruit approximately every 6 to 12 inches along the branches or 1 fruit per cluster. The higher the leaf-to-fruit ratio, the sweeter the fruit. A standard apple tree should have about 40 leaves for each fruit. Dwarf apples, which usually produce a ration of 1 fruit to about 25 leaves, will yield better-quality fruit when thinned.
Stop cutting asparagus when the yield decreases and the spears diminish in size. Top-dress the bed with compost or well-rotted manure.


Stake tomatoes or build cages around them.

Plant beets and carrots for a late-fall crop.

As the days grow warmer, yank up lettuce that begins to bolt and toss it on your compost pile. Plant another crop of beans in its place.

Thin crowded plantings of lettuce, carrots, beets, and herbs. Give them a good watering when the job is finished to help the roots of remaining plants recover from any damage your pulling may have inflicted.

Religiously patrol your basil plantings and remove all the clusters of flower buds that form at the stem ends the minute you see them forming. This will encourage nice bushy plants and a continuing supply of leaves.

Place beer-filled plastic tubs or saucers in the garden, set level with the soil, to lure slugs to a drunken death. (Studies show they prefer imported beer.) Or place a few old boards in the garden and turn them over every morning to find slugs as they sleep. Dispose of them by dropping them into soapy water or crushing them with a brick.

Mulch around trees to create a safe zone where your mower won't go. Nicking a tree trunk can seriously damage even a well-established tree.

Mow your lawn according to the needs of the grass, not the calendar -- for example, every Saturday. Grasses thicken and provide better cover when regularly clipped at the proper height. Adjust your lawn mower blades to cut the grass at 2 or 3 inches rather than at 1 1/2 inches.

Prune rhododendrons after they flower. On young and old plants, snap off spent flower stalks by bending them over until they break away from their stems. Be careful not to damage growth buds at the base of each flower stalk.


Don't trim iris leaves into scallops or fan shapes after the flowers fade. Leaves carry on photosynthesis and develop nourishment for next year's growth. Cut off brown tips and remove the flowering stalk down to the rhizome. If you're dividing irises, cut the leaves back by about half just before you move them.

If you're growing plants outdoors in containers, don't use a soilless potting mix. Be sure it contains at least half soil. Or make your own blend for window boxes and patio containers by mixing one part compost, one part garden soil, and one part builder's sand.

When shopping at a nursery, don't buy a tree or shrub with a damaged root ball. Inspect it carefully to make sure it is uniform, not crushed, and a good size. For every inch of the trunk, the ball should be seven to eight inches in diameter.

Unless you're working your way through knee-high grass, don't remove those grass clippings from the lawn. Leave them where they fall to filter down to the soil, decompose, and recycle nutrients into the roots.

Provided by our friends at "The Old Farmers Almanac"

Gardening Jobs for May

• Weed perennial beds with special care to avoid pulling up precious self-sown seedlings. When you can tell for sure what's what, pull the weeds and top-dress the plants with compost or rich soil -- just before a rain, if possible.
• Provide support for flowers that need it before they start to fall over. Try twiggy prunings or pea stakes for sweet peas and ramblers. Put Grow-thru rings in place for bushier plants such as peonies, balloon flower, and globe thistle.
• Spread a little lime or wood ashes around delphiniums and peonies.
• Divide late-summer or autumn-flowering perennials. If necessary, go after phlox and artemisia with a sharp spade or even an ax. If delphiniums need to be divided, remove and replant the new little plants growing around the outside of the clump. Discard the hard old heart.
• Trim climbing roses and attach securely to fences or trellises.
• Scatter crushed eggshells in a thick ring around roses to deter slugs.
• Sow annual poppies and baby's breath in borders for midsummer bloom by scattering them between the other plants, covering with fine soil, and tamping down gently.
• Prune suckers from fruit trees now before they become established.
• Melons often benefit from supplemental warming, such as that provided by growing under plastic. Wait until the transplanted seedlings are established, as they cannot take up moisture very well at first and can easily get dehydrated.
• Plant above ground crops in the light of the moon.
• Thin beets and lettuce and use the tiny thinning to fill in spaces in the row or to start additional plantings elsewhere.
• For a crop in two years, plant year-old asparagus roots about eight inches deep in trenches lined with rich compost. Fan out the roots and space two feet apart. Cover gently with good soil.
• When potato plants come through the soil, hill them up by pulling several inches of soil around their stems with a hoe to encourage deep roots and keep young potatoes from exposure to light.
• Mulch between rows and keep the garden weeded to give emerging seedlings a fair chance.
• Get that herb garden started by putting in plants. If you include mint, plant it in a large plastic tub (the kind drywall joint compound or birdseed comes in) with its bottom removed. This will help keep it from invading the rest of the garden.
• An established asparagus bed will be ready to harvest. Patrol daily and select spears of about the same size (which will require the same cooking time). If you had trouble locating those first spears, mark the bed with stakes so that you can find them next year.
• Watch for signs of drought in plants transplanted from containers. Apply water (not much, but often) close to each plant's stem, where it will percolate down to the root ball. The larger the plant, the longer the recovery period, and the more diligently you need to water. Poke a pointed metal rod into the soil above the root ball. If the rod doesn't penetrate easily, the soil is too dry. If it moves around and feels squishy, the soil is too wet.
• Moles generally come calling this month. They're searching for mates and also grubs in your lawn. To get rid of the grubs, apply milky spore disease (Bacillus popilliae or Bacillis lentimorbus), a dust you can buy at your local garden center. Or try a new product called Mole-Med, which has castor oil as its active ingredient. Moles don't like the taste of this any more than you do.
• Prune late-flowering shrubs, evergreens, and hedges.
• Don't be in a rush to plant tomato, eggplant, pepper, and other heat-loving seedlings if you live where late-May frosts are common. Old-timers will surely wait until after Memorial Day.
• Don't cut the leaves off spent spring-flowering bulbs. Dying and yellowing foliage may look unsightly, but leave it in place (and don't tie it up) to help the bulbs ripen for next year's show.
• If you have crocuses growing in your lawn, don't mow until their leaves have died down.
• Don't force clematis to climb a lamppost or fan trellis. Instead, give it a chance to climb trees, scramble over shrubs, or romp over the ground.

May jobs from our friends at The Old Farmers Almanac


 Time to start your gardening/landscaping projects. Check out our landscape design software,
Landscape Vision and make plans for your dream landscape!

Gardening Jobs for April

From our friends at The Farmers Almanac

• Start coleus cuttings now to plant outdoors in the garden by early June. These colorful plants are enjoying a revival as fine accents to annual and perennial borders.
• Rake or remove mulches from all flower beds.
• Plant rosebushes. They often do best if planted before growth starts and buds swell. And if you want to increase their fragrance, surround them with parsley.
• Scatter annual poppy seeds in your flower garden and let them grow where they will. They don't like to be transplanted.
• Broadcast lime, wood ashes, or a mixture of the two over alkaline-loving perennials such as delphiniums and dianthus. Bring color outdoors to patios, porches, and even the garden with pansy plants, which don't mind cold nights. To encourage constant flowering, routinely remove spent blossoms and keep them from getting bone-dry.
• Sow sweet peas as soon as the soil can be worked. Nick the seeds with a nail file and plant them five inches deep, but cover them with only about three inches of soil. Hoe more soil up around them as they grow.
• Plant lilies-of-the-valley, violets, and garden lilies. Divide summer- and fall-blooming perennials, including delphiniums, irises, chrysanthemums, daisies, and phlox.
• Although we think of this as a rainy month, it can fool us. Keep transplanted flowers well watered during dry spells.
• When danger of frost has passed, uncover strawberry beds and keep them well watered.
• Plant blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, and fruit trees.
• Start seeds indoors for heat-loving crops such as eggplant, tomatoes, and squash.
• To determine whether your garden soil is ready for seeds, grab a good handful of it. If you can form it into a ball, the soil is too wet. If it crumbles through your fingers and reminds you of chocolate cake, it's ready for planting.
• If the soil is ready, give it a good stirring and let it sit for several days. Then top-dress it with compost or well-rotted manure and plant beets, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, radishes, parsnips, lettuce, spinach, Swiss chard, and turnips.
• If you got your peas in last month, be sure to give them a good fence for support, made of chicken wire, twine, or stubby branches that are at least three feet tall. Otherwise, plant them this month as soon as you can.
• Scatter spinach or lettuce seeds around emerging bulb foliage to make wise use of your garden space, and have a leafy green crop at the ready to cover the bare spots left by deadheaded spring flowers.