Spring is upon us, which means plants are coming back to life. Whether you’ve got a small flower garden on your balcony, or a sprawling mass of land, there’s probably something green outside that needs tending about now. We’ve rounded up 10 ideal apps for making things a little smoother, and helping you plan ahead with your grand designs.
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1. Garden Plan Pro ($7.99) - Garden Plan Pro is an all rounder when it comes to getting your green space organized. It's possible to design your own garden through the app, placing raised beds, rows and containers where you need them to be. The app doesn't stop at the visual though, also offering full growing information for over 190 different plants. It'll teach you how to rotate your crops, when to water things and how to be generally more efficient around your garden.
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2. Landscaper's Companion for iPad ($9.99) - Working as a compendium of all the information you could possibly need while gardening, Landscaper's Companion is going to be great when you're learning something new. It contains details of over 26,000 plants, backed up by 21,000 pictures. In each case, you can learn about things such as sun exposure, water usage, bloom times and growth rate. It'll even warn you if your chosen plant is likely to be annihilated by a deer.
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3. Homegrown with Bonnie Plants (Free) - Promising to be just as useful for newbies as it is experienced gardeners, Homegrown's strength lies in its note taking facilities. You can easily track your garden's progress throughout the year, highlighting when plants are performing particularly well, giving you a heads up on their potential next year. Plenty of guides complete this convenient app.
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4. GrowIt! Garden Socially (Free) - Crowd sourcing information, GrowIt! has you sharing the plants you're growing with others in the local community. In theory, that means you can all co-ordinate to have the perfect color scheme, but it also means that you'll know what kind of plants are growing particularly well in your local soil. Backed up by identification tools, and a plethora of information, it's an interesting change of direction for gardening apps.
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5. Garden Compass Personal Gardening Tool (Free) - Helping you identify what's going on in your garden is the main selling point behind Garden Compass. Simply take a picture of any flower, plant or pest, and the app figures things out for you. You'll receive personalized advice on what to do next, whether it's blight or something unsightly you're trying to fix.
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6. Life - Smart gardening journal/diary (Free) - Organizing what's going on in your garden is key to developing a beautiful place. Life makes that easy by giving you somewhere to record the various events that unfold in your garden, backing that data up with instant weather updates, and a place to snap photos of your beloved plants. If nothing else, it's great to look back on your progress.
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7. Gardening Companion (Free) - Offering a little bit of everything, Gardening Companion provides a place for you to discover new things about interesting plants, while also enabling you to track your garden's progress. Thousands of articles are available, along with YouTube videos, and photos, illustrating everything imaginable about gardening. Reminders mean you won't forget to water regularly, too.
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8. iScape Free Landscape Designs (Free) - Focusing on planning your garden, iScape is particularly convenient on those wet days where you want to feel like you're still making progress. Tied into an image database, you can place down various components within your virtual garden, determining how things will eventually look, and shaping your future plans. Not a garden? You might enjoy dreaming anyhow.
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9. Garden Answers (Free) - Another identification tool, Garden Answers is one of the more inexpensive options out there. Besides helping you instantly identify over 20,000 plants, it also provides answers to over 200,000 commonly asked questions, ensuring you don't have to stress for long when you're stuck for what to do next.
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10. Vegetable Tree ($4.99) - Gardening isn't just about growing beautiful flowers, it's also about a sustainable living. Vegetable Tree focuses on how best to grow and maintain vegetables, providing you with a plentiful supply of tips and tricks, as well as a place to store your progress. Notifications will give you a heads up on how long you need to wait before harvesting, plus you can learn exactly when's the best time to plant.