Plangarden's Web Software For Vegetable Gardeners Starts 2007 With A New Crop Of Features

Half Moon Bay, CA (PRWeb) January 30, 2007 -- Now in its second year, Plangarden adds features and enhancements to its vegetable garden design software that extends its capabilities while preserving its ease of use.

The most significant enhancement is the Zoom and Panning feature that now can accommodate garden sizes of up to five acres (about two hectares). Originally, Plangarden was made for small-scale home gardeners with a maximum garden size of 120x120 feet (about one-third of an acre). Navigation around large gardens is made simple through the use of a "zoom bar" similar to those used in map applications such as Yahoo! Maps.

Plangarden co-founder Giselle Stahl says, "The zoom and panning feature was added in response to user requests for large gardens. Many users have several beds, containers or plots with fruit trees within a large vegetable garden area."

Plangarden users can quickly create odd-shaped gardens scaled in metric or imperial units to proper dimensions with the application's drag-and-drop interface. The software eliminates any manual drawing on graph paper or CAD expertise and saves user gardens on a secure server.

Another new feature includes a Harvest Log that lets users estimate when vegetables will be ready to harvest. Gardeners can stagger their harvests to spare limited space in their fridge. In addition, users can track how much and when they harvest -- a useful tool to record and look back at the results of gardening activities.

As a result of user queries regarding the best time to plant, Plangarden now features a "Know When To Plant" guide to assist in determining when to plant specific crops. The user-specified ZIP Code determines the average last day of frost and graphically displays a time window to start plants indoors and/or outdoors (at this time, only available for US-based users).

Last year, Plangarden changed the rules of vegetable garden planning by offering the first Web-based software application that allows gardeners to design, plan and manage their garden. Over 4,500 users from all over the world have discovered Plangarden, and have provided valuable input in the software's development. Because Plangarden runs in a browser and requires no downloads, new software features can be added dynamically to respond to user requests.

Users can sign up for a free 45-day trial. A full year subscription is available for $20/year. System requirements: PC running IE 5.0+, Netscape 7.0+, Firefox 1.3+ with Adobe Flash 7.0+ and cookies enabled. Plangarden is designed to run at a screen resolution of 1024x768 or larger.

About Plangarden:
A privately-held company providing advanced Web-based tools designed to assist gardeners visualize, plan and record gardening activities. Plangarden focuses on creating Web applications that are powerful, yet easy to use. http://www.plangarden.com.

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