Smart gardens: the software industry has a crop of programs for designing a garden.

Your days of scribbling garden plans on the backs of envelopes are over. While these garden design software packages are not a replacement for moving plants about or hiring a professional, you may find them intriguing. And you can learn a lot from the built-in plant databases that are merged with the drawing programs. Most start with a blank page--you draw your lot and house or choose one of theirs. Then the fun begins: variables such as perennial borders, patios, furniture and sprinkler systems can be dragged and dropped into your plan. Add a gazebo, try a hedge in place of a fence or move a grove of trees effortlessly.

Garden Designer

IMSI, $40, Windows; …