Dig In – The Best Gardening Apps for iPad & iPhone
July 18, 2012
Not many hobbies result in delicious, healthy meals and colorful bouquets. That’s why gardening is a great way to spend a summer; you can get some sun but also end up feeling productive. If you’re interested in a bit of backyard botany, grab your iPad or iPhone and check out these great gardening apps from the iOS App Store and get on with your next grow.
Landscaper’s Companion – Gardening Reference Guide ($4.99) – Dive deep into this reference manual and find information on over 25,000 plants split into 17 categories. Luckily, the Landscaper’s Companion has a robust search feature to help navigate its huge database, allowing you to search by a number of factors including water usage, size, bloom time, and even color. A great guide for any green-thumb’s virtual shelf.
Gardening Toolkit HD ($3.99) – Receive location-based gardening advice from the Gardening Toolkit HD. The app will suggest you plant ideas based on your soil’s hardiness, and then track the predicted bloom and harvest days for what you decide to grow. It contains encyclopedic summaries of over 1,000 herbs, flowers, fruits, and vegetables to help you plan a garden that will be both beautiful and bountiful. And the app’s lovely design makes it a pleasure to use on iPad.
Garden Plan Pro ($19.99) – Before your shovel hits the dirt, spending a bit of time in Garden Plan Pro will ensure that your plot is well planned. Use the visual tools to see where individual plants will fit best into your garden, and easily rearrange them if you’re not happy with the results. When you’ve decided on a layout, receive practical advice on growing techniques and get e-mail reminders of when to check in on your latest crop.
Patterson Feeder Birds of North America (Free) – Now that you’re spending so much time in the backyard, you’d might as well get a bird feeder and make some friends. The Patterson Feeder Birds of North America app is a great intro to bird-watching, featuring maps, illustrations, and song samples from some 160 common species that you could encounter. Check the app to see a county by county breakdown of bird sightings in any given week, so you know what to keep an eye out for.
Alexei Bochenek is a lifelong tech nerd & film buff based in Los Angeles. When he’s not playing with his phone, it’s because the movie has started. Shhhhh!
