TFP has some 7500 plants, so it is fun to use them to do a bit of virtual landscaping around you house model.
With a bit of thought they can look very real.
If you choose to use one plant many times, as frequently happens in a gardens, TFP will automatically insert them all at the same size. This can look very unnatural, unless it is a formal column of pencil pines or something like that. In reality, even if planted at the same time, plants will seldom grow at the same rate so this can be simulated in TFP simply be altering the size of some of them slightly.
On the image below the left hand side shows plants all the same size, while on the right a few have been make wider, taller or both.
Obviously putting in extra plants in front of others can also help to hide the fact that the exact same plant is repeated. Note the trees at the back - on the left you see the same size trees and the same shapes of sky between the brances in each tree, while on the right the same 5 trees are different sizes and a couple of others in front of them hide the regular patterns of sky, so they look more natural. The same thing was done with the yellow Lupins. All the other ones on the right are just copies of the ones on the left, with the size adjusted on some.
The size can be altered on most plants by adjusting the "Age" slider on the Properties Info tab, or you can use the Size Tab, override the enclycopedia size and type in your own size. Using the Size adjustement you can adjust the width and height separately for more variation (see the other two images).
Happy gardening!
Allan
