[{"TitleName":"The Planter's Guide","Publisher":"Phoenix Publishing Associates","Author":"Barrie Tyler","YearOfRelease":"1986","ZxDbId":"0012002","Reviews":[{"Issue":{"Name":"Sinclair User Issue 52, Jul 1986","Price":"£0.98","ReleaseDate":"1986-06-14","Editor":"David Kelly","TotalPages":100,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: David Kelly\r\nDeputy Editor: John Gilbert\r\nSenior Staff Writer: Graham Taylor\r\nStaff Writers: Clare Edgeley\r\nDesigner: Gareth Jones\r\nEditorial Secretary: Norisah Fenn\r\nAdventure Writers: Richard Price, Gordo Greatbelly\r\nHelpline: Andrew Hewson\r\nHardware Correspondent: John Lambert\r\nBusiness Correspondent: Mike Wright\r\nContributors: Jerry Muir, Gary Rook, Chris Bourne, Brian Cooper\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Louise Fanthorpe\r\nSenior Sales Executive: Rory Doyle\r\nProduction Assistant: Alison Morton\r\nAdvertisement Secretary: Linda Everest\r\nSubscriptions Manager: Carl Dunne\r\nPublisher: Terry Pratt\r\n\r\nTelephone [redacted]\r\n\r\nSinclair User is published monthly by EMAP Business & Computer Publications\r\n\r\nCover Illustration: Stuart Hughes\r\n\r\nIf you would like to contribute to Sinclair User please send programs or articles to:\r\nSinclair User\r\nEMAP Business & Computer Publications\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nOriginal programs should be on cassette and articles should be typed. Please write Program Printout on the envelopes of all cassettes submitted. We cannot undertake to return cassettes unless an SAE is enclosed. We pay £20 for each program printed and £50 for star programs.\r\n\r\nTypeset by Saffron Graphics Ltd, [redacted]\r\nPrinted by Peterboro' Web, [redacted]\r\nDistributed by EMAP Publications Ltd.\r\n\r\n©Copyright 1986 Sinclair User ISSN No 0262-5458\r\n\r\nABC 90,215 July-Dec 1985"},"MainText":"Label: Phoenix\r\nAuthor: Barry Tyler\r\nPrice: £14.95\r\nMemory: 48K\r\nReviewer: Terry Pratt\r\n\r\nI strongly suspect that the particularly tenacious bind-weed which haunts my borders is the real brains behind Planter's Guide - a database program intended for gardeners. What to plant. Where to plant it.\r\n\r\nIt will be twisting its heart-shaped leaves around my defenceless honeysuckle while I am waiting for the tape to yield that final elusive portion of Spectrum code (it lurks just beyond the horrendously long Commodore code).\r\n\r\nAnd the bindweed will revel in the vast acres of space left in my tiny plot by the time I have pulled out all the plants which apparently - according to the Planter's Guide - have no right thriving in my garden at all.\r\n\r\nSad to report that out of the 1,000 plus shrubs, conifers, heathers and climbers featured in the Planter's Guide, only two actually make the grade for my back-garden.\r\n\r\nThe fact that I am not writing this from the barren wastes of the Kalihari but the midst of England's prime agricultural belt in East Herts, says something for the limitations of the program. Especially as it was conceived and written in the same County.\r\n\r\nThe guide purports to offer help in selecting plants which match your garden conditions. And is backed up with a chunky 130-page book giving 40-word descriptions of the many plants to choose from.\r\n\r\nBy keying in a page number and the number of the entry it gives a read-out on the screen of the height the shrub aspires to, the colour with which it will adorn your hedge-row and when to expect it to be at its best.\r\n\r\nIt will also suggest the conditions in which it will thrive: sheltered or exposed sites; sunny or shady conditions; moist or dry or chalky or acid soil and, finally, the type of plant it is.\r\n\r\nThe book description adds to this - but crucially it provides no pictures.\r\n\r\nAlternatively you can use the program the other way around entering the conditions in your plot and seeing what the program recommends.\r\n\r\nComputers being the unforgiving creatures they are, there is little flexibility and the variety of conditions which can be found in a garden are not so easily pigeon-holed. I have no doubt that author. Barrie Tyler has his information correct but, largely because the Planter's Guide is so inflexible in use the package is unlikely to please either gardener or computer buff.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"To plan a garden you need pictures. A good book would do the job far more effectively and cheaply.","Page":"38","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Terry Pratt","Score":"2","ScoreSuffix":"/5"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[{"Text":"WHAT I WANTED\r\n\r\nIt's sad the Planter's Guide didn't come up to scratch. My ideal imaginary Garden Designer uses Psion's date compression techniques from Scrabble, allied with Mike Singleton's landscaping craft from Lords of Midnight!\r\n\r\nYou, the gardener, input your garden dimensions, draw in the size and shape of the plant beds and show changes of level where they occur and a 3D representation of the garden appears on screen. Choosing plants from the extensive list, you use your cursor to position them in the garden and hey presto it is drawn in, height, shape and outline. Gradually you build up the garden with shrubs, conifers and climbers until all the beds are full and the trees have been planted.\r\n\r\nAll this is hoping for the moon but some sort of intelligent database was definitely called for with the Planter's Guide. Where the computer program could have scored over any of the colour guide books - and where this one didn't - is on the creative side. It would be fun to sit indoors on winter evenings and plan graphically your ideal garden, experimenting with different layouts, plants and shapes Even a simple plan-view option to lay out the garden would have been terrific."}],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Overall","Score":"2/5","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]}]}]