Discover the most effective gardening apps and internet resources to help you do everything from planting a garden to setting up watering routines.
It might seem a little counter-intuitive to use your iPhone to prep, plant, and gather your yard. I was initially unconvinced by the plant care apps, but changed my mind during the last two expansion periods. Let’s take a look at some of the most effective garden landscaping apps and online resources I’ve reviewed to help you grow your favorite fruits, vegetables, natural herbs, berries, and flowers. You might just end up being a plant app converter, as well!
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Garden planning apps.
The ideal garden you will ever have is the one you imagine in winter, or so the old saying goes. I agree ! Once the winter season holidays have actually come and gone, gardeners everywhere are anticipating and also salivating over the seed brochures that flood our mailboxes. A pleasant climate seems available as we choose old varieties as well as eye-catching new alternatives to fill our beds in the spring. Choosing seeds is the easy part, however, and too often the truth disappoints our hopes and also dreams.
I found several helpful sources for this planning stage that helped me revamp an existing garden on the east side of my house and develop a 2nd larger version on the south side. When re-imagining a space you’ve used before or going back to square one, the most crucial aspect to understand is light. Whether you want to plant a shade garden or sun-loving vegetables, you need to know if your plants will be getting the right amount of sunlight each day. For this purpose, I would recommend the Sun Seeker – Tracker &; & Compass app ($9.99).
With this garden design app, you use augmented reality to imagine the area of sunlight throughout the days, weeks, and months of your horticultural season. This will help you choose the location for a new garden or place the plants in your existing flower beds. The app draws solar paths over your landscape, so you can also find out if removing a certain tree will make your chosen garden location much more possible.
Your next action should be to improve your soil. If you haven’t currently, I would definitely recommend composting. The Organic Home Composting app ($0.99) can get you started on this amazing procedure or help boost your current pile if you haven’t been happy with your results. When finished, you can use your decomposed natural waste to start seeds, modify beds, and also make garden compost teas to water your plants.
Once you understand the usefulness of sunlight and soil, I’d suggest turning to Pinterest (free) for all the garden design ideas a person could ever need. Whether you want to learn more about heirloom vegetables, climbing roses, buddy plantings, or cute landscaping ideas for garden entrances, paths, and potting benches, you’ll find it below.
Internet resources for planting a garden
There is a restriction on how long you can dream before it’s time to take the plunge and get your seeds or seedlings into the ground. Even for seasoned gardeners, there is always room for renovation around. Unfortunately, I have yet to discover a seedling starter application that satisfies me. The garden management app of my dreams would allow individuals to enter their geographic location and find out what zone they are in, then get detailed, calendar-based growing guidelines for each seed line. Preferably the app would even tell us when it’s time to get our seed orders and consist of a diary area for note taking,
Two sources see me via waiting for the ideal plant organizer app to appear. The very first is the Seed Saver’s Exchange site.. If you haven’t heard of the ESS in the past, it’s an Iowa-based organization dedicated to preserving heirloom seeds. You can acquire seedlings, plants, devices and books on the website and find a wealth of information for gardening enthusiasts. Navigate to the “Garden Planning and also Tips” webpage in the “Resources” section, and you’ll find information on USDA zones, garden layout, starting seeds, treating plants, and, of course, , saving seeds, in order to be able to benefit from free plants the following year! I wish Seed Savers had an app, but until then I’ll stick with the website.
The 2nd life saver during the planting season is YouTube( free). Nothing can compare to in-the-field tutorials from living gardening enthusiasts. Here, you’ll find everything from networks generated by expert groups like Living Web Farms and the Rodale Institute, to individual video clips of people who have solved tough problems and want to share their ingenious techniques. This year, I finally solved my gigantic tomato seedling problem after appreciating a YouTuber who placed expansion lights just inches from the tops of his plants. I was doing it wrong from the start and wasting money on plants that I could have grown myself. With this gardening aid, I have grown so many sustainable tomato plants that I
Plant care applications
After planning and planting your garden, you will need to babysit until harvest time. It involves watering, weeding, and pest control, which takes a fair amount of time and also power throughout the growing season. In addition to the resources I’ve already listed, there are a few other places I rely on.
The WeatherBug app (free) helps me in various places. Primarily, I use the app to determine when I need to water and also when I can wait for Mother Nature to do the task for me. I also use the hourly forecast to know when it will be warm enough to work, and the mapping feature to know when the pollen is most likely to require an allergy pill. But notifications are crucial. WeatherBug sends an emergency situation alert to my phone when there is a flash flood, tornado watch, or excessive heat or freeze alert. These allow me to cover my plants, give extra water or bring my household into the basement,
Now, to the question of pests, diseases, and also weeds. It’s so disheartening to get plants off to a good start in life, only to have mysterious insects, pests, and damage plants or maybe eliminate them. As a natural gardening enthusiast, I’m not very likely to release a chemical, fungicide, or herbicide, so I have to recognize problems early and address them holistically.
I looked at several plant recognition apps to find out if the plants are weeds or weeds, and also if the bugs are beneficial, benign, or there to eat my plants. Although there is no substitute for the trained human eye, some plant identification apps are better than others, and can also be a useful source.
When I need another opinion on something failing in my garden, I open the Facebook app (totally free). I come from many horticultural groups, consisting of Permaculture Women, Homesteading &; & Gardening, and also a neighborhood group, too. Below I can post pictures as well as summaries of any kind of problems my plants are having and usually get exact suggestions within an hour.
The iPhone/gardening hybrid
Although introducing my apple iphone into my gardening routine has been a change, I still enjoy the time spent with my plants and also feel really relaxed and also refreshed after a great hour or more of watering, weeding and monitoring the progress of my vegetables. The only difference is that getting the information I need to be the gardening enthusiast I’ve always wanted to be is easier now. As plant care apps grow, I’ll be happy to check out even more comprehensive offerings that support gardening enthusiasts every step of the way.
Soundtrack suggestions for your efforts.
Some people relish the audio of wind, leaves, as well as birdsong as a horticulture soundtrack; it suits me on occasion. Other times, however, I like to listen to an audiobook, podcast, or songs while I tend to my plants.
YouTube Music ($11.99/month)
I tried Apple Music and Spotify, yet this solution wins my ballot. With a YouTube Premium subscription, I can enjoy or listen to ad-free web content as often as I want. YouTube keeps playing behind the scenes, even if I have to open and use another app. More importantly, I can enjoy listening to playlists of music I’ve loved and checklists of music that introduce me to brand new favorites.
Audible ($14.95/month)
I’ve amassed a whole library of audiobooks, and I also like to pick up a brand new alternative every month, or listen to old picks depending on the mood. A favorite is Mildred Armstrong Kalish’s Little Heathens, a tale of growing up on an Iowa farm during the Great Depression; he is an excellent friend of my gardening work.
OverDrive (Free)
Most public libraries provide a totally free electronic solution that allows customers to borrow eBooks, movies, magazines, as well as audiobooks. My collection uses the OverDrive app, as well as it allows me to get up to 4 audiobooks each time to pay attention after using my monthly Audible credit report.
Podcasts (Free)
Apple’s native podcast app is best if I’m in the mood for a bit of spirituality with On Being, or some real, chilling crime with They Walk Among United States. The Podcasts app has my downloads ready for when I’m off the Wi-Fi variety operating in my orchard.
