Expert Vegetable Gardening

A LITTLE EXPERT HELP IN THE GARDEN

A Review of Expert Vegetable Gardening

by Lee Seats

It is always nice to have a little "expert assistance" and I have

found Expert

Vegetable gardening to be both helpful and affordable. I usually

expect

software in this price range to be of marginal quality and

usefulness, but

Expert Software has produced a high quality, very usable product at a

true

value price.

There are many features form charting of harvest times to a list of

recipes

for your garden products, but the core of it all is the plant and

pest

databases. There are more than 100 plants (many with 2 or three

varieties)

organized in an easy to use and versatile database. The pest database

lists over

75 of the most common garden enemies. Both databases are rich in

information

on each entry. The plant database effectively uses a cardfile

metaphor. Each

entry has a card for each of the following: Basic Information, Soil

Facts,

Growing, Varieties and Nutrition. Both the plant and pest databases

have a

full color picture for each entry. I was pleasantly surprised to

discover that

both databases are expandable. You can make your own entries and

even import

pictures for the entries. I had some fun with this feature. I made

an entry

under pests for the family cat complete with picture and comical

comments under

the varies fields. My wife had a good laugh when she later

accidentally ran

across this new "pest".

What I think really sets this program apart from many "how to" titles

is the

smooth integration of the features. If you want to identify a pest

you have the

choice of searching the entire list or only those that are likely to

infest the

plants that you have chosen for your garden. If you choose a

vegetable from you

garden and open the recipe book you can select to see only recipes

that use

that item. There is a glossary that can be accessed directly, but

there are

also hypertext links to it in the database text. The only area that I

think they

missed a good place for integration is the planner. As implemented

the garden

planner is a simple calender that allows you to attach notes to each

date. I

would like to see something of a template created from your selected

garden

with indications of the date ranges for planting and harvesting.

You’ll not find yourself spending more time figuring out the program

than using

it. The manual is small, but very well written. The help system

features

pictures of the program screens that allow you to point to a button

or text

area and get help on that item. If you should need technical

assistance it is

free except for toll charges. I called the technical support number

(not that I

needed help, just to check on them), and had no trouble getting

through. I was

on hold for about one minute and spoke with a very nice tech. He

didn’t even

get mad at me for wasting his time!

The software itself seems to be as bug free as I wish my garden was.

I have a

knack for locating glitches in programs, but try as I might I found

none. It is

good to see software that not only has useful features but runs

smoothly and

doesn’t waste your time by making you work around the rough edges.

Expert Vegetable Gardening is one of those programs that grows on

you. (Bad

pun intended!) I found the more I use it the more I like it. I’m not

normally

the type to a lot of planning, but I have the spring garden already

planned

before the fall harvest is over. My wife tends to do all of her

planning on

paper, but she has been looking over my shoulder with what I

recognize as the

"when can I use the program" look. I think with a little help from

the

"Expert" our garden planning will be an enjoyable family activity.

Multimedia Cafe Scorecard

Product:	Expert Vegetable Gardening
Company:	Expert Software 800 Douglas Rd Coral Galbles, FL 33134 (305) 567-9996

Cost:

$14.95

Microsoft Windows 3.1 (in enhanced mode), 4 MB RAM,
mouse, 4 MB available hard drive space and
a VGA or higher graphics display.
A printer installed under Windows is optional.