A woodland pond in late summer: lily pads on still water, standing dead trees, spruce and young fir along the shore.

Know what your garden needs. Know when. Know why.

Native gardens, tended on time. Every plant you grow gets its own care schedule, written from each plant's botanical record and fitted to your soil, your light, your region. You decide what goes on the calendar; GardeningLab makes sure nothing slips.

Open GardeningLab on this phoneOpen the demo garden See it in 60 seconds
Point your phone's camera here to open it where it belongs.
  • Free
  • No account
  • Nothing to install
  • Your garden stays on your phone
Upstate New York, late August.
The film · one minute

The whole idea, in the time it takes to water a pot.

Seven things GardeningLab does, shown in the app itself, in a real garden. Each one is also a twenty-second lesson of its own.

  1. Your whole garden, in one place Start with the demo. Then start yours.
  2. Identify Snap a photo. Confirm the plant.
  3. Plant detail The record, and where it came from.
  4. Plant fit Right plant, right place.
  5. Projects Plan across your beds.
  6. Care calendar Built from each plant's own record.
  7. Talk to your garden Ask in plain words.
A frame of the film: the app in a phone, under the words Right plant, right place. Play · 1 min

Pressing play loads the film from YouTube. Until you do, this page asks YouTube for nothing. Privacy

Four questions

Every gardener asks the same four. What should I do this week? A care calendar built from each plant's own needs. See it · 20 s Can I trust this? Our regional records name a source for every filled field, the rest name theirs where we have one, and nothing is called reviewed until a person has checked it. See it · 20 s Will it grow here? GardeningLab reads your spot's light, moisture, soil and climate, and recommends plants that will thrive there, natives first. See it · 20 s What has to go? Mark the invasive, the struggling, the misplaced; removal lands on the calendar.

GardeningLab Academy

Eleven lessons, about twenty seconds each.

One job per film, shown in the app itself, in a real garden. Press play on a lesson and it loads from YouTube; until you do, this page asks YouTube for nothing.

1 · Identify

Snap a photo. Know the plant.

GardeningLab says what it thinks and how sure it is. You confirm. Only then is it written down.

Lesson 1, Identify: the app in a phone under the words Snap a photo. Know the plant.Film coming soon
2 · Plant fit

Right plant, right place.

Every bed knows its light, moisture and soil. Each plant is checked against the bed it stands in, with the reason in words.

Lesson 2, Plant fit: a bed's plant list, each plant scored against its bed.Film coming soon
3 · Care calendar

What each plant needs, when it needs it.

Built from each plant's own record. Swipe a task when it's done, or postpone it. Project dates land there too.

Lesson 3, Care calendar: the month's tasks on the Home screen, one per plant.Film coming soon
4 · Talk to your garden

Ask in plain words.

By voice or by text. A summary of your garden travels with the question, so the answer is about your beds, your plants, your season.

Lesson 4, Talk to your garden: a question typed into the ask bar.Film coming soon
5 · Sources

See where each fact came from.

Open any plant for its botanical record. Scroll down to Sources to see which source each cited fact came from.

Lesson 5, Sources: a plant's record open in the app.Film coming soon
6 · Search the world

Not in the catalog yet?

Type its name. One tap, and GardeningLab drafts the record for you to check and edit, labelled AI-drafted.

Lesson 6, Search the world: the Plants list offering to search for a plant that is not in the catalog.Film coming soon
7 · Projects

Plan across your beds.

Start a project, put it on the beds it touches, and give it a date.

Lesson 7, Projects: a new project with two beds assigned.Film coming soon
8 · Share

Hand it to the person with the trowel.

Send someone a copy they can save as their own, or publish a page anyone with the link can see.

Lesson 8, Share: the Settings page with Send someone a copy and A public page to look at.Film coming soon
9 · Your data

Yours, not ours.

The record lives on your device. Export a file any time, photos included. Delete everything whenever you like.

Lesson 9, Your data: the Settings page with Export a file and Delete my garden.Film coming soon
10 · Start

Start with the demo. Then start yours.

You arrive in a real garden. When you're ready, keep it as a starting point or begin with nothing, and name it.

Lesson 10, Start: the welcome sheet over the demo garden.Film coming soon
11 · Know your garden

GardeningLab knows your garden and recommends the right plant for the right place.

It knows your zone and frost dates. Each plant is checked against its bed's moisture, soil and hardiness. Tap ＋ and natives that suit the bed's light come first.

Lesson 11, Know your garden: a bed's page with its site match score and its zone and frost dates.Film coming soon

Scroll sideways for all eleven.

Seen enough? It takes one tap.

Open the demo garden, look around, and press "Start yours" when you're ready.

Open GardeningLab on this phoneOpen the demo garden
  • Free
  • No account
  • Nothing to install
In one picture

What GardeningLab does

What GardeningLab does Three overlapping domains. Science: botany, chemistry, climate and phenology. Ecosystem: insects, fungi, birds, mammals and reptiles. Garden management: what to do, when to do it and why to do it. Science and Ecosystem meet in Identify. Science and Garden management meet in Guided care. Ecosystem and Garden management meet in System of record. All three meet in Citizen science. Science Ecosystem Garden management Botany Chemistry Climate Phenology Insects Fungi Birds Mammals Reptiles What to do When to do it Why to do it Identify Guided care System of record Citizen science
Every task in your garden adds verified, located data to native-plant science.

Built on published botany

Mt. Cuba, Cornell, Missouri Botanical Garden and Rutgers are cited by hand from their publications; we are checking each citation against its source. Cited, not endorsed. See all our sources

How it goes

Walk it once. Tend it for good.

Most gardens are held in one person's memory, and that person is rarely the one holding the trowel on Thursday. GardeningLab moves the garden out of your head and into a record anyone can read.

A shaded bed in early June: foxglove spikes, iris, and a pruned pine in a pot.
The shade bed, 4 June
1Photograph

Take pictures as you walk, or use the ones already on your phone.

Group them by bed. Each bed gets its own light, moisture and soil notes, once, and remembers them.

See it · 20 s
Close: a foxglove in bloom beside an orange blackberry lily with leopard-spotted petals.
Blackberry lily, 11 July
2Name

GardeningLab suggests what it is. You say whether it's right.

Identification is tuned to the northeastern United States, so the answer is one name, not a list of everything with an oval leaf. An unsure match is shown as unsure.

See the record · 20 s
Species tulips and grape hyacinth pushing through last year's leaves in April.
The same slope, 16 April
3Understand, then plan

See which plants suit the bed they stand in, and which should go.

GardeningLab checks each plant against its bed and recommends ones that will thrive there, natives from your own region first. Add, move, or mark a plant for removal. Start a project across several beds and date the work.

See plant fit · 20 s
The Pond Garden in summer: black-eyed Susan, pink lilies and mulched paths under a window.
Pond Garden
4Tend

Follow the calendar. Check it off. Move on.

Every plant's care, drawn from its own record, lands on one calendar. Postpone a task. The plants you've marked to go are there too, so nothing you decided gets forgotten.

See the calendar · 20 s
Privacy

Yours, in the plainest sense.

GardeningLab is local-first. The garden you build lives in your browser, on your device. If you want it on a second phone, or safe from a lost one, keep it online with an email address or a Google account, and nothing else.

Never asked for Your address, your contacts, anything for advertising. Your location only if you choose to share it, and then only the town is kept.

Never done by GardeningLab Selling your data, sharing it, or training anything on it.

Sent out only when you ask A photo, to identify a plant; a question, to answer it. The full list is short and names who receives what.

Before you start

The questions people ask first.

Is it really free?

Yes. Everything is free: no trial, no ads, nothing to unlock. GardeningLab is made by one gardener and run on a shoestring; the costs are small and ours.

Do I need an account?

No. Open it and start. An account is offered only when you want the same garden on a second phone, or safe from a lost one; an email address or a Google sign-in is all it takes, and it is never required. What stays yours · 20 s

Will it work on my phone?

It runs in the browser you already have, on Android and iPhone, with nothing to install. It asks for the camera only when you photograph a plant, and for your location only if you choose to set your garden's town that way. You can add it to your home screen if you like.

What if I don't know any plant names?

That is the point. Photograph the plant and GardeningLab suggests the name and how sure it is; you only confirm. Anything it does not know, it looks up for you and drafts the record, clearly labelled AI-drafted. Identify · 20 s · Search the world · 20 s

What happens if I lose my phone?

If you kept the garden to an account, it is there on the next phone. If you did not, the file you can export at any time, photos included, is your copy. Either way nothing is ever sold or shared, and you can delete everything whenever you like.

Less guessing. More gardening.

Start with the demo, poke around a real garden, and press "Start yours" when you're ready. It takes one tap.

Open GardeningLab on this phoneOpen the demo garden
Later, and only if you choose

Where this is going.

A garden recorded over seasons, plant by plant and date by date, is an observation science does not have and cannot easily get another way. GardeningLab is built so that, once there is enough of that record and only if you choose, yours could one day be contributed. Today nothing is, and the app has no way to do it. More on that, and on who makes this.