a garden laid out for esthetic effect; "they spent a great deal of money on the landscaping"

• Visualisation. Lanscaping software should help you with visualizing colour, shape and layout. We've used a flat 2-d package (way back before modern computers) and it didn't help visualization at all.
• Choosing Plants. "Size, shape, colour, seasonality, shade requirements, water requirements, hardiness, ease of growth, obtainability”. All factors in your choice of plants.
• Designing for growth. How will your design look in 2,3 or 4 years time. Your new landscape will probably start as some hard Landscaping (patios, gazebos, swimming pools) with added twigs and bits of promising foliage lately out of their nursery containers. The challenge is to see how this will turn out.

• There should be a database of plants with scientific names (so you can source them easily) and growing characteristics, such as the ones listed above. The database might accommodate an English Country garden, but no good for Arizona, so look carefully at its range.
• It should not take ages for the software to generate an image of the landscape you're trying to create, so avoid Landscaping Software with slow or limited graphics.
• It should allow you to use or draw the common hard Landscaping features as well as plonk plants onto your plan.
• Cost estimates are useful – prefer the package that has this feature to ones that don't.
• Growth simulators are essential, in our view. Your plantings must neither be sparse, or longer term too crowded
• These days a 3-d simulation, with maybe walk throughs as well, should be standard.
• Don't consider anything without a trial period or a money back guarantee. You are far more likely to get these terms on the internet, as shops on the Mall or the High Street often do not accept returns.
• Landscaping software should be designed by people who know landscaping, gardening and plants, so avoid the software descendents of standard AUTOCAD programs.