The Best Gardening Apps Every Gardener Needs In 2023
Looking for a little help with your gardening efforts? Whether it’s planning your garden, designing it, or simply learning more about what’s growing in your backyard, look no further than these top apps for gardening!
It doesn’t matter if you’re an experienced gardener or a self-professed brown thumb, you are bound to come across a new weed or unknown plant from time to time. No matter what your experience level is with gardening, you can always use a little assistance from time to time when it comes to learning about the plants and bugs in your backyard, right?
These days we seem to have apps for everything, and believe it or not, apps have even made it to the gardening world. There are a growing number of gardening apps that can help you plan your garden, identify plants, remind you to care for them, troubleshoot why one of your plants isn’t growing as it should, and more.
Basically, no matter what your gardening needs are, there’s an app for that! Here are the best apps for gardening to help your garden become even more bountiful – all year long.
Reasons You May Find an App for Gardening Helpful
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People have gardened for centuries without using apps, right? So why use one now? Of course, you don’t need an app to help your garden, but apps are designed to make your life easier and more convenient.
For many people, using your phone while digging around in your garden may not seem like the most logical thing to do. However, gardening apps provide the ability of a convenient helping hand there right when you need it.
Here are some examples of when I think gardening apps are especially useful:
- Gardening has a big learning curve which can be overwhelming for beginners. Apps can provide not only the knowledge that beginners haven’t acquired yet, but also troubleshooting help when needed.
- A gardening app can help you design your garden and plan out your planting and care schedule.
- Different apps provide the ability to record information regarding your plants in an easy-to-find place.
- Eliminate the time spent searching for what that mystery plant is with plant identifying apps.
- Local garden center closed? No problem! Your app just might have the answers you need when you can’t talk with someone in person.
- Don’t know how to care for that new bush? Your gardening app can tell you!
The Best Gardening Apps For All Your Gardening Needs
It doesn’t matter if you’re a gardening novice or a seasoned professional, everyone can up their gardening game, and garden-related apps are an easy and resourceful tool to help you do that.
I’ve collected a list of some of the most helpful top gardening apps that I could find. I haven’t had the chance to use all of them yet, but I know people who recommend them and I want to try more of them for my own garden this year!
To make it easier to find what you need, I’m dividing these apps into different sections: Educational, Garden Planning, Garden Design, and Plant Identification.
Best Educational and Management Gardening Apps
No matter how much experience you have with growing plants, there’s always more to learn.
Educational apps for gardening exist to help spread horticultural knowledge, and management apps exist to keep gardeners organized and help you stay on track with your day-to-day gardening tasks.
GardenTags
This all-in-one app provides a wealth of information by connecting you to a community of gardeners and an encyclopedia of information including over 20,000 plants. You can share your own photos of plants as well as keep a photo record of what you grow to use in future years.
What makes this app helpful:
- Keep a collection of images of your plants and gardens in one handy location.
- Identify unknown plants with the help of an entire gardening community at your fingertips.
- Forgot when you should prune that shrub? Set up a plant care task to-do list based on the plants growing in your garden to help you stay on top of your gardening tasks.
- Tag your plants and take care of them using the community-generated plant encyclopedia and plant care task list.
- Get advice from a community of gardeners & let them help you identify unknown plants in your garden.
- Available on iOS and Android.
Gardenize
The best education is through learning by experience.
This gardening app gives you full control over your garden by helping you keep track of what you planted, where, and how to care for those plants.
What makes this app helpful:
- Ability to connect with an active community of gardeners.
- Database of plants with care information included.
- Diary area for recording notes of what you’ve done and learned.
- Available on iOS and Android.
Garden Manager
Did you just forget to water the garden again?
The Garden Manager app is tied into weather stations so it can alert you when you need to protect tender plants from frost and allows you to set reminder alarms so you never neglect your plants.
In addition, this virtual gardening coach has three different paid subscription levels to help you get the most out of your garden this growing season.
What makes this app helpful:
- Allows you to keep track of your gardening progress.
- Track your plants’ measurements on a graph.
- Available on Android.
Gardroid
Are those cucumbers ripe? This gardening app provides useful information about the cultivation methods of vegetables to help you harvest your vegetables.
What makes this app helpful:
- Sowing tips and information.
- Plant care tips.
- Progress tracking for your vegetables.
- Journal space to add your own notes.
- Recommended harvesting periods for each plant.
- Available on Android.
Garden Journal
Keep track of what you’ve planted and how it’s doing with this helpful gardening app. You can track what you’ve planted, when you need to water, and how often you need to prune and care for your plants.
What makes this app helpful:
- Pest advice section to deter unwanted pests.
- Free app but can upgrade to the Garden Planner package to draw up plans for your veggie garden.
- Available online.
Best Apps for Planning Out Your Garden
You no longer need to become a walking encyclopedia ever-ready to list what plants grow best at different times of the year. Instead, use these apps to help you plan your garden so that you get the very most out of it.
From Seed to Spoon
This free app makes growing vegetables, fruits, and herbs in your backyard or container garden easy. It eliminates the guesswork of planning your garden by letting you know when seeds should go in the ground and other helpful information based on your GPS. As the ratings show, this is one of the best garden planning apps available.
What makes this app helpful:
- Personalized planting dates based on your gardening zone.
- Filter plants by health benefit.
- Companion planting guide.
- Organic pest treatments.
- Beneficial insects.
- Recipes.
- Available on iOS and Android.
Garden Planner for Vegetables, Fruits, and Herbs
This program from the Farmer’s Almanac, is web based (not an app, although the site says it’s coming to tablets soon) but it’s a gem for helping you to design the best layout for your gardening space.
You can customize it to your specific garden beds and gardening style, and it will tell you how many of each plant to sow, when to plant, and when to harvest.
What makes this app helpful:
- Uses weather stations to adapt to your specific climate.
- Large database of plant information so you can find what you need to care for your garden.
- Journal space to record your gardening progress and plan your essential tasks.
- Crop rotation warnings.
- Connect with other gardeners within the community.
- Available online.
Moon and Garden
This gardening app takes a much different approach to planting and harvesting your garden. By relying on the moon’s phases, it offers advice on gardening actions based on the idea that different types of plants depend on lunar phases for successful growth and harvesting.
The app makes gardening recommendations based on the moon phases and weather forecasts.
What makes this app helpful:
- Schedule gardening tasks based on recommendations.
- Set reminders so you don’t forget.
- Connect with other gardeners in the app community.
- Available on iOS and Android.
Garden Design Apps
Do you have a small gardening space? No problem! These apps are dedicated to giving you a better idea of the best ways to use your gardening space, no matter how big or small it is.
iScape
This app looks amazing because it helps you design your landscape by giving you visuals so you can see what your yard would look like with various plants. Basically, it’s a way to see what your home would look like with a professional landscaping design that includes all your favorite plants. All you have to do is use your phone’s camera to take a photo of your yard.
From there, the app will do the “heavy lifting” by using augmented reality to overlay different landscaping features on your photo. You can see how your home and yard would look with flower beds, walkways, driveways, and even your favorite plants.
The app is free in a demo version and there’s a paid version where you unlock more features.
What makes this app helpful:
- Ability to see how your yard would look with different design features so you can decide what you really want without guessing what it might look like.
- User-friendly design.
- Basic version to “test drive” with ability to purchase the pro version to unlock additional features.
- Available on iOS.
Home Designer Suite
While this is software and not an app, I’ve found it useful for creating detailed deck, garden (and home) design plans. There is a bit of a learning curve, but it’s a very helpful tool if you take the time to learn it.
What makes this app helpful:
- Intuitive design tools.
- Interactive design that allows you to move things around.
- Available online.
Best Apps for Identifying Mystery Plants
No idea what kind of bush that is growing in your yard? That’s no longer a problem with plant identification apps. These gardening apps help you find detailed information about specific plants so you can decide what you want to keep and what you don’t.
Garden Answers
This app uses image recognition technology to compare any photo you take with your phone against a database to help you identify plants quickly and easily.
Simply snap a picture and the app will return information regarding the plant’s identity as well as basic tips on caring for it.
You can choose to pay a small fee to ask horticulturalists direct questions about diseases and pests.
What makes this app helpful:
- Database of all your previous questions and their answers.
- Find out if your plants have disease or pest problems.
- Available on iOS and Android.
LeafSnap
With 95% accuracy, LeafSnap is a very comprehensive, high-tech, and accurate plant identification app. I have used it with great success myself!
With the simple snap of a photo, you can quickly have the entire database of an unknown plant at your fingertips.
What makes this app helpful:
- Create collections of your favorite plants.
- Explore pictures of plants from all around the world.
- Works on plants, mushrooms, and cacti.
- Available on iOS and Android.
What’s That Flower?
What is the name of that beautiful flower you saw on your walk through the park? With What’s That Flower? you can find out by simply searching.
Filter results according to the flower’s color, number of petals, and habitat. This flower checker has a free version or you can pay for additional features.
What makes this app helpful:
- Filter by color, region, number of petals, and more.
- Search by photo.
- Search by name.
- Offline mode.
- Available on iOS and Android.
Gardening might be a “get your hands dirty” type of activity, but that doesn’t mean your smartphone can’t come in handy. You can use gardening apps to help you take your gardening skills to the next level, no matter how much gardening experience you have under your belt.
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- Clematis Care: The Ultimate Guide To Planting, Growing and Pruning Clematis
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- 12 DIY garden tool storage ideas
Do you have a favorite gardening app? Tell us in the comments below!
This post was originally published on February 10, 2021 but was updated with new content on April 12, 2024.