Desert Landscaping by Computer

Tucson is now one of the few communities in the entire country to have it's own personalized guide to landscape plants, via the computer. Thanks to the University of Arizona, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and it's Water Resources Research Center, a veritable encyclopedia of arid plants awaits your keyboard fingertips.

Newly released this summer, the "Desert Landscaping" program is designed for personal computers with CD-ROM drives. If you haven't purchased a computer yet, this is the perfect excuse to get one. More than a reference, Desert Landscaping is an interactive guide through landscapes of the Desert Southwest.

You can explore nine separate gardens with your computer mouse. Moving the cursor from plant to plant, reveals the names as you go. Want more information? Just press the cursor on any plant and the screen will transform into pictures and script about the plant you've selected.

Another great feature of the program allows you to choose the criteria for selecting a plant. Categories to choose from include; type of plant (tree, shrub, flower, etc.), environmental requirements (light, water, soil and cold hardiness), appearance (size, shape, and flowering habit), and maintenance requirements. After you've selected the plant characteristics desired, the computer searches from over 600 possibilities, to give you just the plants that meet your specifications. Try getting that kind of help from a reference book!

If you want information on a particular plant, the Plant List option allows you to go directly to it. Choose from a list of common or scientific names. You can scroll down through the alphabetized list of names, or type in the plant you want. The computer will bring up the information on the plant you've selected. Overall and close-up pictures of the plant appear, along with text on the plant's characteristics and requirements. Want to enlarge a picture, just press the cursor on the photo and it enlarges to fill the entire screen. With a sound card and speakers for your computer, you can even hear the pronunciation of common and scientific plant names.

Understanding the hows and whys of desert landscaping is a feature of the Landscape Tips program option. Here you can find out how desert plants survive, ways to create a drought tolerant desert landscape, and tips on planting and maintaining desertscapes.

Desert Landscaping is easy to use, even if your a computer novice. Instructions are easy to follow. The program can be operated entirely by clicking the mouse on menu selections and program commands. Typing in plant names for computer search is an option in the Plant List section, but the cursor can also be used to scroll plant names and make selections.

Development of the Desert Landscaping program was headed up by Gary Woodard, Associate Director at WRRC. Gary had a lot of help from many local plant experts. I'm proud to say that one of those was our own Ed Stather, Pima County Extension Master Gardener. Ed developed the original data base upon which the Desert Landscaping CD-ROM was based.

For anyone interested in purchasing the Desert Landscaping CD-ROM, the computer requirements are a 486-based or faster PC with 4 mega bites of RAM (8MB recommended) and a 2X CD-ROM. A Mac version is due this fall.

Desert Landscaping is offered for sale at $25.00, through the Water Resources Research Center, located at 350 N. Campbell Ave. It can also be purchased at a number of area garden centers, botanical gardens, book stores and gift shops. For a list of area retailers call the Water Resources Research Center at 792-9591.

Written by John Begeman, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, the University of Arizona, 520-626-5161.
Material originally appeared in Arizona Daily Star gardening column, on August 25, 1996
Return to index