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Article in App of the Week category.
Use Planter to Maximize Your Garden Space
Quick story first, deal? My second-cousin is an architect and when my great aunt moved into a small condo, she set about using her skills…
Quick story first, deal? My second-cousin is an architect and when my great aunt moved into a small condo, she set about using her skills to design this insane planter layout. It would maximize space, promote symbiotic plants, and be overall aesthetically pleasing. It was amazing to see her hand-drawn sketches which then came to life in this relatively small planter, at least compared to what she had before. Now, I am not an architect. I cannot plan out my gardens like that, but Planter definitely has my back.
This has become my go-to companion for gardens and I’ve been diligently looking through the app as I start to plant things this spring. You can look up endless vegetables, flowers, and fruits that you may be planting in your backyard.
Each plant has a fantastic breakdown view, like an interactive, icon-heavy wikipedia page. For example, you can see endless varieties of peppers, and a detailed description of each one. It can provide helpful information such as how much room they need, how far down they need to be planted, what their watering requirements are, how much sun they need, and more. I love the growing calendar too because it’s a visual timeline that shows when you should start plants indoors, when to move them, when they’ll fruit, and when you are safe to sow them outside directly.
What I’ve found really useful is the grid planting system. You tell the app how large the garden is and then add your plants. Each plant has these cute graphics that are overlaid on the grid. You can then move them around and place them based on their requirements and your space.
One of the best features is helping to choose companion plants, like planting carrots under tomatoes. That way you’re maximizing the space in your garden. Equally as important, you can get alerted to combative plants that you’ll want to separate. I like this much more than pen and paper because I get to keep rearranging and adjusting until I find the perfect garden, without having to erase or scratch things out.
There aren’t many native iOS feature for Planter. It’s kind of a self-contained app but it does work with Apple’s Family Sharing. Plus, a single purchase lets the app work on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. It’s an easy app to use and navigate, especially with a unique interface such as the planter grids. Whether you’re a beginner or advanced horticulturalist, this is the best app I’ve found for planning your garden.
But enough about other people's apps.
