DesktopPlant

DesktopPlant is a lightweight tool with a pretty self-explanatory name - it allows you to grow a plant on your desktop. This app can come in handy if you plan on teaching your children how to properly take care of a plant, for example.

The small program includes several types of plants that you can grow - Azalea, Cactus, Maple Tree, Philodendron and Sunflower. Some of them come in different colors, ranging from purple and white to red, yellow and pink. It is possible to take care of multiple plants at the same time.

By double-clicking the plant figure, you can bring up a window from where you can adjust the levels of water, fertilizer, light and temperature. If you don't know what each plant needs, simply access the "Info" area to find out its requirements, age and health status.

The "Options" section allows you to enable automatic care system which is recommended when you are away from the computer for a longer period of time. Plus, the plants can be set to evolve in real time (i.e. even when the computer is turned off).

Also, you can change the temperature unit, customize the plant appearance (brightness, pot and saucer color), as well as resize or move the plant anywhere on the screen with the help of some arrow buttons.

The application uses a low amount of system resources, has a good response time and includes user documentation. We have not come across any errors during our tests and DesktopPlant did not freeze or crash. Unfortunately, there is no option to speed up the growing process (at least in test mode).