Spring is here! The transition to warmer weather is well underway; the landscape soon will be alive with the color and greenery of a new growing season.
Help with planning a flower or vegetable garden, or upgrading the landscaping around your home, is as close as the broadband connection on your computer, tablet or smartphone. With the advent in recent years of Web-based resources for the home gardener, it’s now easy to design a garden strategy that fits your financial, space and maintenance abilities.
The New York Times Personal Tech column evaluated leading apps and online resources for gardeners, and highlighted a few favorites.
Growing your own food?
The Food Gardening Guide app from Mother Earth News is available to Apple and Android users. It’s a bonanza of information for do-it-yourselfers, with a library of topics that include tutorials on growing 20 different types of crops as well as details on organic foods, plant disease prevention, planting self-seeding crops, renewable energy, natural health, and “green” practices.
Planning adequate space for vegetable gardens is easy with Smart Gardener, a Web-based app that helps layout a garden and finds suitable plants perfect for specific locations and the time of year.
Starting a summer landscaping project?
The Landscaper’s Companion is a massive plant database available in apps for both Apple mobile and web-based use. It catalogs more than 26,000 plants and vegetables from around the world, with detailed information on climate zones, sun requirements, mature sizes, water requirements and bloom times – all backed by 21,000 photos. Users can create a personal catalog of their own plants and photos and, with the help of a dynamic search engine, find the perfect plant choice for any project.
For Apple users, investing in the digital version of Sunset Magazine’s famously comprehensive reference, “The New Sunset Western Garden Book” (ninth edition), delivers electronic access to nearly 30 DIY videos, interactive maps, robust search features and 100 slideshows with optimized photos. Nearly every section is packed with links to additional information on the preparation, planting and care of gardens.
Struggling to keep your garden green?
Garden Manager, a free app for Android users, keeps track of daily garden tasks and records progress along the way. This essential gardening tool offers alarms/reminders for activities such as sowing/harvesting seeds, watering, fertilizing and applying pesticides. The app tracks growth in the garden, which can be shared via Facebook or Twitter, and features a photo log option to save pictures and notes about your plants – and capture specific plant data for graphical displays.
While successful gardening efforts still depend on favorable weather and a lot of hands-on care, a reliable Internet connection and the right app can enhance your “green thumb” by providing the information needed to grow the right plants, at the right time, in the right location. For those interactive gardeners wanting to share their experience with other gardeners around the world, Frontier’s 2FAST Symmetrical Internet speeds allow you to upload photos and post video blogs about your garden faster than ever.
Frontier Communications wishes all gardeners a bountiful growing season this year!
