Issue link: https://nest.uberflip.com/i/1284887
ISCAPE If you want to spend less money and don't mind doing your own renderings, your best option may be iScape, an iPhone app that was created by Patrick Pozzuto, a land- scaper-turned-tech-entrepreneur, after a particularly diffi- cult project in which he nearly threw out his back digging up and replanting sago palms until he and a client were satisfied they had the optimal arrangement. This app allows you to be a virtual landscape designer (thereby avoiding Mr. Pozzuto's fate) by snapping a photo of your outdoor space and decorating it with two-dimen- sional images of trees, shrubs, pavers, plants, furniture, birdhouses and other elements that you can pinch to resize and drag around your photo. While this sounds easy it can be arduous, as it required no small amount of guesswork to figure out whether a pergola, for example, will fit into your tiny patio. Mr. Pozzuto said the company plans to address that issue later this year by introducing a new version of the app that will use augmented reality to allow users to virtually walk through an outdoor space; it will also superimpose and automatically size three-dimensional images of plants, so you can see if a particular tree would block your view or how hydrangeas would look in your front yard instead of petunias. An iPhone app created by a former landscaper, iScape allows you to virtually design an outdoor space using a database of 1,500 images of plants and accessories. Another issue: If you are using the free version of the app, you are lim- ited to choosing just 10 of the 1,500 images of plants, hardscapes and outdoor furnishings in the database, and you can save only one design. If you want to use more images and save two designs, you have to sub- scribe, which will cost $4.99 a month (or $19.99 a month if you want unlimited storage). Whether you are planning to go it alone or hire a professional land- scaper, this app offers an easy way to design an outdoor space if you have a fairly good grasp of what you want.