When it comes to gardening, the benefits are endless. There’s the tranquility while planting, the anticipation while growing, and eventually the beautiful and often delicious harvest. Plus, the self-satisfaction that grows while your plants mature is incomparable.
Unfortunately, it can also seem like a rather daunting task if you’re unfamiliar with gardening practices.
The good news is that there are many apps available to assist you in planting, tending, and harvesting your garden! Here are some of the best of these apps, filled with knowledge for planting a new garden.
1. From Seed to Spoon: The Best App for Picking Seeds
One of the best planting options for your garden is a fruit and veggie patch. Not only do they provide you with delicious results, but they also flower, bloom, and grow at exponential rates. You’ll have a beautiful garden in no time.
From Seed to Spoon can help you decide which plants to use for annual and perennial vegetable and fruit gardens. It will tell you the growing conditions required for any given veggie, herb, or fruit and help you decide if it’s right for your climate conditions.
In addition to a wide knowledge database, the app provides you with access to weekly gardening blog posts, video tips, and exclusive shopping deals.
Download: From Seed to Spoon for Android | iOS (Free, subscription available)
2. Veggie Garden Planner: For Plotting Your Garden
It’s important to note that the free version of this app is very limited and really only works as a trial run to test whether you want to use the premium version.
If you’re interested in designing your garden from a landscaper's perspective, you can plot out the area with ease using this app by dividing the garden into sections for an extremely compartmentalized garden.
This app removes a lot of the fluff associated with garden planning apps and gets right to the nitty-gritty of directly picking well-partnered plants for your veggie or flower garden. One of the best features of this app is its warning system. If you make a gardening mistake, it will immediately inform you of potential hazards.
Download: Veggie Garden Planner for Android | iOS (Free, in-app purchases available)
3. Gardenize: For Planting and Tracking Seeds
Gardenize has great gardening options when planting your seeds. The in-app photo-editing system allows you to take pictures of your direct seed sow, and then draw and write directly over it to indicate your seed planting areas.
After you’ve got your seeds in the ground, Gardenize acts as an incredible gardening pocket journal. You can add special notes about the type of care each plant needs or schedule event reminders so that you never miss fertilization again!
This is extremely user friendly and an excellent option for beginner gardeners anywhere. The app is customizable and there’s a community of fellow gardeners to connect with for future assistance.
Download: Gardenize for Android | iOS (Free, subscription available)
4. Gardenia: Plant Maintenance and Watering
In the heat of the summer, missing a watering cycle has the potential to absolutely destroy your garden. Without water, temperatures that are too high will scorch the plants and leave them dry. Gardenia is a great way to guarantee that your plants never miss another treatment.
Whether you need to schedule water, fertilizer, or harvesting, Gardenia’s beautifully organized app will creatively display your reminders. You can schedule these in advance so that when you start your day, all you need to do is check your Gardenia app.
Inside Gardenia you'll find all your necessary gardening chores, leaving you more time to enjoy the wonders of your garden. The app also provides you with basic information access for over 90,000 plant species, adding new plants every week.
Download: Gardenia for Android | iOS (Free)
5. PictureThis: Weed and Disease Identification
Once your sprouts burst through the ground, every morning is filled with new life in the garden. PictureThis will help you to identify whether or not a new sprout is an intended seedling reaching for the sun, or a nutrient-sucking weed.
Simply take a picture through the app or upload a picture from your library to identify plants. The app will quickly inform you of the plant's identity and whether or not you should keep it around in the garden.
In addition, if you notice any diseased or dying plants, you can use the app once again to diagnose the plant's ailment. It will then provide you with all the necessary information to help fix the issue. The app is also abundant with useful guides and tips and even stores your plant search history in a virtual garden for easy future identification.
Download: PictureThis for Android | iOS (Free, subscription available)
6. Moon & Garden: To Account for Moon Phases
Most people are well aware of the effects of the sun as a vital aspect of plant photosynthesis. Moon & Garden is an app designed to help gardeners learn about and harness the power of the moon on garden growing cycles as well.
The app basically works as a calendar that syncs your gardening with the cycles of the moon. You can set your location and the app will begin automatically suggesting the best gardening practices to use during different cycles of the moon. This includes everything from transplanting to harvesting.
Although it’s difficult to confirm the benefits of this app for your garden, it’s another fun way to manage your garden—and your zodiac at the same time!
Download: Moon & Garden for Android | iOS (Free, in-app purchases)
7. BBC Gardeners World Magazine: For More Information
If you’re looking to increase your gardening knowledge while waiting for your plants to flourish, BBC Gardeners World Magazine is the best option available.
While some magazines simply display virtual pages, BBC Gardeners World Magazine is a fully immersive app complete with almost everything you’ll need to improve your gardening know-how.
Whether you require a new house plant to make it through the harsh winter or you need landscape tips for your spring garden, this app will fit the bill. There’s even an extra page known as the Secret Garden available for subscribers, which features exclusive how-to content such as videos and DIY guides.
Download: BBC Gardeners World Magazine for Android | iOS (Free, in-app purchases available)
Virtual Gardening From Anywhere
Starting a garden is one of the best ways to enjoy nature and experience its benefits simultaneously. No matter what garden you settle on creating—be that flower, succulent, or vegetable—one of the best aspects of gardening is the overwhelming sense of calm that it brings.
If you’re unable to get out into the dirt with your hands, some amazing new apps are being developed for virtual Gardeners. No garden? No problem. Beauty and tranquility are abundant in mobile app gardening games.