Luckily help is at hand for at least one of these programmes. Now in its third edition, ‘Residential Garden Design with Vectorworks Landmark’ by Tamsin Slatter, gives garden designers a clear, descriptive and illustrated guide to getting started with Vectorworks 2011.

Unlike the dreaded software manual, which covers every single aspect of Vectorworks whether you are a garden designer or landscape architect or an interior designer or architect, where some things will be relevant to you and others simply aren’t. Tamsin’s knowledge of both the market leading software and of garden design means that she is able to steer us towards the important, relevant aspects of the software and create a form of work-flow that can be referred to again and again.

The way that the book is laid out means that you can follow a series of tasks that lead you through the tools that you will need to competently execute the garden design process. The bonus with the book is that there is a CD that accompanies it with part pre-completed exercises for you to work on so if you don’t get it by reading the book you can work on actual garden designs.

These exercises that accompany each section mean that you aren’t just reading an endless and mind numbing dialogue. Each section then is bought to life with a real situation that can be explored and experimented with in a controlled manner aiding more complete understanding.

As a visual learner, I learn best through seeing and watching and in this respect training sessions provide the best solution most of the time but you can’t have and expert sitting in the room with you all the time! On hand to answer the question that you may have asked more than once already and this for me is where the book wins every time.

I suspect that most garden designers that have made the leap to Vectorworks Landmark CAD, probably don’t use it often enough to remember every detail about how to get the best out of it without consulting some sort of notes. I know I need to and this book provides an excellent platform for making the most out of your investment.

Talking to many garden designers who are apprehensive about making the leap from the drawing board to the computer and CAD design there are a number of fears – normally relating to control of images and colours. Like any new discipline these skills need to be learnt and honed through practice. It helps then, to have a clearly laid out guide which takes you through the steps that you need to know and offers pointers to the ‘Help’ sections on where to find more information on a given subject.

The advances that have been made in Vectorworks 2011 are pretty significant – particularly for me – as I have upgraded from VW 2008 so having this to hand while I am working through new designs will be indispensable and will, I think, allow me to make better use of the VSS service that is also available for 2011.

Now we don’t need to be daunted by software manuals that are reminiscent of lengthy literary works. I would love to see this book shipping with the software so that everyone can benefit and would also welcome similar style books and accompanying exercises tackling more complex aspects of the software such as 3-D terrain modelling and perhaps some of the wonderful plug-ins that are now available for Vectorworks 2011.

Residential Garden Design with Vectorworks Landmark is written by Tamsin Slatter and is available through Vectorworks Training and Computers Unlimited

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First up was Coblands Nursery – I had the pleasure of visiting the Nursery in Kent last summer so it was great to catch up with Nigel Gibson again. They offer both commercial and retail outlets for their plants but were displaying a range from their Best4plants range which is an online garden centre, I guess in some way rivalling Crocus.

Presnting their range of ‘larger than usual’ bulbs were Avon bulbs, I think what appeals here is that the bulbs are UK grown, not, as so many are, from Holland or Europe. If you are looking for great spring and summer flowering bulbs this site is well worth a visit. They have won numerous RHS Gold Medals for their show exhibits over the years. As a little thank you visitors were presented with a pack of Gladiolous callianthus

I am really looking forward to trying these, having first seen them a few years ago when they were known as Acidanthera murielae!

Celebrating 50 years were the Beth Chatto gardens and it was great to see some of the team buzzing with enthusiasm and interested as ever, I have the gardens in Essex high on my list of gardens to visit.

There were a couple of interesting seed merchants there. Worthy of note were Harrod Horticultural with their range of Stephanie’s (Harrod) Kitchen Garden Organic Seeds and Thompson and Morgan for their wide range of seeds and plant plugs. Perhaps the most interesting thing particularly if you are new to growing your own is a range from Unwins called Gro-sure which come with a guarantee of successful results. There were of course many others!

Many of the stands had interesting organic or eco-friendly products on display including Vitax with some organic slug pellets fetchingly called Slug Death XL - no guesses as to what that does then!

The award for the Best Overall Stand at the event though went to a company called Carbon Gold. This is an innovative company formed by Craig Sams – who also started Green & Blacks Chocolate. A quote from their website

“Biochar offers a fresh solution to the challenge of climate change. Carbon Gold is developing a portfolio of projects that uses the latest technology to turn surplus biomass into biochar – a form of fine-grained charcoal that is high in carbon and largely resistant to decomposition.

Biochar offers a unique tool to combat global warming because it can capture the carbon dioxide that has been absorbed by growing plants and tie it up in the soil for hundreds of years, so preventing it re-entering the carbon cycle.

Biochar also increases soil productivity, retains moisture and reduces nutrient leaching, thus reducing the need for irrigation and artificial or organic fertilisers. Unlike charcoal, biochar can be sourced from various types of biomass, typically from surplus agricultural materials, such as crop residues, tree prunings and agro-processing by-products.”

This certainly seemed an amazing product and it will be interesting to follow its progress in the market, we shall see just what impact it can have.

There were of course tools and machinery on display and all sorts of novelties, like Backdoorshoes – which take on from where Crocs left off!

One thing I found which was particularly interesting as a garden designer was a publication on the Husqvarna stand which had analysed the many ‘garden blogs’ from around the world and had identified the most prevalent topics of discussion, surmising that these were likely to be the styles and trends most reflected in the corners of the globe – it makes fascinating reading and perhaps I’ll find a way to share some of its contents here.

Still on the design theme Vectorworks were showing their new Vectorworks 2010 software. I use an earlier version and recently reviewed Tamsin Slatter’s book on the subject. They are certainly forging ahead with developments and it is now justifiably regarded as the number one CAD software for garden designers. Like so many software packages it is a vast programme, but the backup and support available makes learning a pleasurable experience.

An interesting show and one that I could easily have spent another day at and still not spoken to everyone! Here’s to next year!

Following instruction manuals on how to do something is not in my nature. I am the type of person who is determined to figure it out for himself without the heavy burden of having to read instructions first!

So when I was asked to review this book I faced an interesting challenge. I was actually going to have to read some detailed instructions on how to create fabulous 3D rendered garden designs using Vectorworks – complete terror set in!

I have had about a years experience of using Vectorworks and have achieved a reasonable standard of 2D drawing skills, complete with rendering, insertion, labelling and reporting on plants, much of which was achieved following a days training with Tamsin – so I knew the basics (or at least I thought I did!).

Make no mistake I still have a long way to go to be called an expert on Vectorworks but the book has shown me how to take the 2D basics and transform them in to potentially thrilling 3D work.

What I found useful about the book was the way it was set out – in a straightforward, logical sequence with exercises demonstrated with simple to follow exercises and an accompanying CD. Before setting about a task we are given a taste of what the section is aiming to achieve, followed by short, well written, numbered sequence of instructions accompanied by screen grabs to add further clarity.

For me this won’t replace face to face tutoring but it does allow you to progress at your own pace and review procedures at any time. The power of this CAD tool is huge and finding the bits that mean you can make a difference to your customers is now much easier. Presenting 3D plans and walk throughs rather than a 2D representation of the garden will make a big difference for many of my clients who fail to grasp the way a garden will look when just faced with plans.

My only criticism is the small format, which while handy, also means that the screen grabs are frequently rather small and therefore hard to see – but that’s a minor criticism of a book that delivers a cost effective route in to using the power of Vectorworks Landmark.

You can contact Tamsin Slatter through her website and the book can be purchased through her or through other Vectorworks resellers