Are you a beginner at gardening? Or maybe it’s your biggest hobby and you’re looking for new ways to improve your craft? It doesn’t matter what your status is, we got your back. In the following article, you will find the best free planting apps with tons of useful information.
And before we start, check out that we have a number of useful articles about the plant apps on our website. For instance, you can learn more about the care after the plants from our collection of the best plant care apps.
Seed to Spoon – Growing Food
If you’re a beginner in gardening just like me, then this is the grade app to start with. In general, it helps you to track the implantation of your seeds, and nurture them just not to forget anything. Seed to spoon will teach you how to grow vegetables, fruits, and different herbs with its garden planning guides.
What this app does is it estimates the proud or harvest times by taking into consideration the time when you planted it.
An interesting feature of this app is that here you can find the compatibility of plants, for example, what can grow well together and which plants will be harmful to each other when they grow side by side.
Since all this information can be sometimes overwhelming for the dummies, seat to spoon does quite a good job and explaining everything and structuralizing everything. The app is quite easy and useful, and navigation here was quite comprehensive.
It has several sections, and it has almost all types of fruits and vegetables that you can add to your gardening list. If we would want to be too picky, could be a little bit better but it’s okay in general.
All in all, this is a great app and I would recommend it to anyone who’s only starting their Journey with plans and gardening and just want to have a nice tracker of the plants’ growth.
Main features:
- Different filters for plants, associated health benefits you want
- The data is based on your GPS location and all the reminders about the plants’ growth are calculated based on it
- The companion planting strategies help you to avoid hazardous elements occurring in plants
- Information on how to attach beneficial insects to the plants
- Possibility to purchase seeds right in the app from the trustworthy brand
Check out this article: 11 Best gardening apps for Android & iOS
SunCalc org
This application probably might seem insignificant and too easy, but in fact, finding the best location for the sun is a crucial step in planning out a garden. Remember that you will need at least six to eight hours of sunlight per day for the vegetables to grow.
With this useful app, you will not have to waste your time looking at the sun and mapping out where it hits your yard or where the Shadows fall.
With SunCalc you will immediately understand what is going on at your specific location because the information that it provides is based on the compass grid and this sounds path across the sky.
You can also enter your home address into the app manually and you can also change the settings by calendar month. It will allow you to see how much direct sun to expect during all seasons.
This is an important step because you’re going to get less sunlight during the wintertime. The interface all the app is quite simple and we would even say playing, but in this particular case, you don’t really need much.
Main features:
- Detects quickly the path of the sun, sunrise, sun peak, sunset
- Combination of the compass data, time, and weather
- Displays azimuth, altitude, and shadow length for each location and each time
Homegrown with Bonnie Plants
This is another useful app for beginners. Basically, it’s a great choice for those who want to start out their first vegetable garden but don’t have any idea what to plant. Homegrown with Bonnie Plants counts more than 250 types of vegetables and herbs that you can select from and keep the track of.
The app is designed specifically for you to be able to track the progress of the plant’s growth and see current and forecasted weather for your location. An additional feature of the app is that here you can create tasks for yourself in addition apart from those which are already in the app.
For instance, Homegrown with Bonnie Plants will remind you to sew, water, weed, fertilize, and nurture your plans. And since the app is developed to buy the seeds and plant suppliers here you can also shop for plants and order them quickly.
All in all, the app is easy to handle for all types of user levels. The only thing it’s not really convenient to type in all the details about the plans manually and we wish we had more sections for that. The interphase design is quite average for a nap of this type no we wish it could be better.
Main features:
- You can take notes during the planting process like planting, watering, feeding, and harvesting
- The app contains useful info on how to plant, fertilize and harvest more than 250 veggies and herbs
- Lots of articles on how to grow and maintain the garden
- Weather tracking with forecasts so your plants wouldn’t freeze
- Possibility to create a visual story of your plants’ growth by taking pictures and uploading them to the app
- The app can help you to choose what to grow from vegetable type and variety.
iNaturalist
iNaturalist is quite a popular app among all nature lovers. This app will help you to really explore what’s around you in terms of plans. This app uses artificial intelligence image recognition technology to identify the plans and even animals around you.
In addition, this app has something like a game mode, where you can earn badges for seeing and taking pictures of various types of birds, amphibians, plants, and other creatures. The app is also something like a community, where you can participate in monthly observation challenges with Our Planet on Netflix.
It is a really useful app for those who are really passionate about nature, you can also do your own highlights on the map where you saw something interesting, you can take notes about the plan that you saw, you can add new pictures and new plans to the app, and you can also share this information with others.
In order to be 100% honest, we can say that according to our tests, the app is not always capable of recognizing certain plans or a herb, but you can always share the picture with the community and find the answer there.
Main features:
- Can recognize the type of the plan or an animal in the real-time mode
- Earn points for recognizing plants and animals
- Learn new info about the nature around you
- A great tool to keep records of your nature observations
You may also like: 5 Free Flower Identification Apps for Android & iOS
Lawn to Wildflowers
The attraction of beneficial insects to your garden is an essential part of the plants’ growth. Therefore, this app will show you how to convert your outdoor spaces to pollinator-friendly wildflower habitats.
And not just for beneficial purposes but any garden would be looking more aesthetically pleasing when it’s full of beautiful bees and butterflies. Lawn to Wildflowers will help you to understand different plants and insects which are common in your region.
You will learn a lot of information about different native plants and the types of pollinators that they need and will learn how to attract them to your garden.
You will learn that someone who is living in the southern regions of the country may have a very different group of pollinators than someone who’s living in the Northwestern part of the US.
But we would still say that this app is only for the real junkies because if you’re out of the subject, it might seem a little bit boring for you and it has quite a boring interface design so it’s not really user-engaging.
Main features:
- A game mode where you can build your knowledge about the pollinators in your area
- Provide data about your progress in converting your yard into a pollinator-friendly place. Data helps understand pollinator patterns throughout the regions
- Learn more about different types of pollinators with the help of images and details
- Discover the seeds for the plants and wildflowers that will attract the biggest amount of pollinators
PictureThis
This is one of the most popular plant identifier apps that you might need when you’re starting your gardening and this particular app has one of the best interface designs in the whole list.
What is more, it has quite a precise artificial intelligence technology that will recognize almost any type of plant in the pic.
You can either take pictures right in the app or upload a picture of a plan to it. In addition to all of that, the app contains useful tips about care after the plants.
You will find useful instructions about plant care, you can also share your pictures with the community and receive tips and offers from plant professionals, and also track the growth of your plans.
Here you can also create your personal collection of plans. What is really cool is that picture is capable of recognizing more than 1700 types of plants.
Main features:
- Plant care tips and info
- Watering frequency for pest and disease control
- A huge database of plants and 98% accuracy in plants recognition
- User-friendly interface design
GardenAnswers Plant Identifier
It doesn’t matter if you’re new to gardening or you have been doing that for several years, you will definitely find something useful in this app. Mainly, GardenAnswers is a plant identification app. But actually, the functionality of the app goes far beyond it.
In the main menu of the app, you will also find the link to the community, you can also ask the question to Experts and explore on the map which plans you can find around you. And of course, you can identify the app using the artificial intelligence feature that is built in.
This app is capable of identifying more than 20,000 plants and it can answer more than 200,000 commonly asked plant questions. According to our test, the app is capable of identifying a planned type quite precisely. The only thing is that it requires you to create an account before start using it.
And some of its features are not available in the free version. Would actually recommend being careful when you go for a paid subscription to GardenAnswers because some users complain they have issues with it and even though they pay money, the premium features are still locked.
Main features:
- Easy-to-handle interface design
- Identifying any plant immediately
- Keyword searchable database to find even more information about a plant
- Possibility to ask questions to an expert
Moon & Garden
While planting and growing your garden, it’s important not to only orientate to the position of the sun, but also to take into consideration the positioning of the moon. This app is basically an interactive lunar calendar and it represents the all information from the universal experience based on the biodynamic examinations.
The plans are naturally strongly influenced by the lunar phases so it’s highly beneficial to plan your garden works depending on the moon. The harvest, replantation, sewing all of that can be planned based on the lunar calendar. The app will show the current lunar phase and the current zodiac sign.
You can also add different notifications about your own plants in the garden to the app. Moreover, you will find useful information about almost every plant and vegetable on how it’s influenced by the moon.
Another additional feature of Moon & Garden is that it includes its own little community, where you can share your observations and experiences and also ask questions.
Another interesting option here is that you have a canvas where you can plan your garden scheme. All in all, Moon & Garden is a separate ecosystem and a community of garden enthusiasts and if you consider yourself one too, you should join.
Main features:
- Contains the moon calendar with recommendations for garden works on a certain day
- Will send you notifications about the lunar phases for plants
- Contains a lot of useful info about the correlation between moon phases and certain plants
- Contains useful planting tips
Garden Manager
Garden Manager is a simple, but a useful app for all types of gardeners. Now you won’t have to remembember each detail when you need to water or fertilize a certain plant or flower because the automatic reminders in Garden Manager will do it for you. The app will be especially useful to those who have a lot of plants, vegetables and fruits in their garden.
You just need to add the data about a plant to the app. Then it will automatically compile the watering schedule and if you need to, you can insert the corrections to it. Garden Manager is really that easy in use, and in fact, it doesn’t have any other features except you writing down the plants you have.
Main features:
- Compiling the watering schedule for your plants
- Keeps the records about your garden
- A notepad for the garden
Blossom
Blossom is another app for the identification of plants, and we really liked this one. It can precisely identify the type of a plant or a herb and provide you with all the nessesary info about it in seconds.
What is more, The infromation is structurized according to the categories which makes the discovery process more productuve. There you will also find out how to take care after this plant, how to water it, fertilize it, replant it and so on.
Blossom can recognize not only the types of plants, but their deseases as well. You can even leave a request and get a professional consultancy. There are also video lesssons that teach how to take care of the plants.
You can add notes about the plants and herbs that you already grow along with the possibilities to sort them out to the groups according to your preferences.
Another interesting feature of Blossom is that it includes the light meter and therefore, you can always measure if the spot where you planted your new flower has enough sunshne. And in general, Blossom has one of the best interface designs in the whole list, with great visuals, mindful structure and fun animations.
Main features:
- Identification of more than 100 thousands of plants and herbs
- Detailed infromation about plants
- Great interface design and usability
- In-built light meter that will help you to measure the amountof sunlight at the spot
- Possibility to add notes about the plants
Check also: 8 Free Garden Planner Apps for Android & iOS
Gardroid – Vegetable Garden
We actually though it would be worse. Even though that Gardroid is a typical Android app with a little bit lean design, it is a useful tool when it comes to your vegetable garden. Here you can find the useful infromaiton about all kinds of vegetables.
The app will tell you how to plant and grow them, and will show you the table, where all the aspects of the required care will be presented one by one. You can add the pictures of your plants to the app and add notes to them. Find the information about the nesessary plant just by using the search bar at the top of the screen.
Main features:
- Detailed infromations of vegetable plants
- Detailed tabels
- Possibility to add notes
