Spring has sprung! Here at Planter we could not be more excited for the start of the gardening season. Our southern-based team members are on the verge of planting out their warm-season crops, while the northerners are in full indoor seed-starting mode.

In the midst of all this gardening buzz, we’ve also got some buzz-worthy updates to share with the Planter community. 🐝

What’s Growing On?

Weather Data for Gardeners

Planter app users already know you can find your frost dates automatically in Planter. But what about other key weather information that gardeners need to know?

Enter MyFrost.Date, a comprehensive historical weather data aggregator for gardeners!

On MyFrost.Date you’ll find comprehensive information on your growing zone, temperature, precipitation, sunrise/sunset, and more!

Check Out MyFrost.Date

Social Media Spotlight

In a recent episode of the Planter Podcast, Peter, Milan, and Erin addressed a viewer question on container gardening, sharing tips and tricks for successfully growing in containers.

Growing Guide Highlights

Growing your own food can be more expensive than buying from the store, especially if you factor in your time. Of course nothing beats the flavor and freshness of home-grown food, but is it necessarily the case that growing your own has to be more expensive? It is possible to have a productive garden on a budget, if you get creative with the resources you have available!

Read: Budget-Friendly Gardening

Grasses are versatile plants that can be incorporated into your garden in dozens of ways. In this article, we’ll go through 7 reasons why you might consider adding grasses to your garden.

Read: Why Add Grasses?

Landscaping with edibles is becoming more popular with home gardeners. Edible landscaping lets you have a garden that is both productive and picturesque.

Read: Edible Landscaping

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Do you have your garden plans finalized and your seeds ordered for this year? If not, now’s the time to start planning in Planter!

As the seed starting season gets underway, we’re launching two handy new plant Quick Info tiles in Planter to help boost your seed starting success: Germination Temperature and Seedling ID.

Looking ahead to upcoming changes in 2026, we also have a new podcast episode out where Peter gives a sneak peek of the upcoming Gardens 2.0 upgrade.

Check out what we’ve been up lately @ Planter:

What’s Growing On?

New Plants…And Grains!

Heading into the new season we’ve been busy adding the most upvoted plants from the Planter Request List.

Near the top of the list were requests for more grains- scroll down to the “Grains” section to see the new grain plant options!

Still missing key plants for your 2026 garden? Add your own custom plants quickly and easily! Click the link below to learn how:

Learn How to Add Custom Plants

New Plant Quick Info Tiles

We’ve recently added two new plant Quick Info tiles to help with seed starting:

Germination Temperature: Indicates the optimal soil temperature range for germinating seeds for each plant. The germination temperatures for the most common plants are populated and we will be adding more in the coming weeks.

Seedling ID: When starting seeds outdoors it can be tricky to tell what’s a seedling and what’s a weed. Use the Seedling ID tile to get a sense of what your seedlings or young plant sprouts will look like (hint: select the tile to expand the image).

Social Media Spotlight

Join Peter, Milan, and Erin as they share their 2026 garden plans in Planter and talk about their approach for this year. Peter also shares a sneak peak of Gardens 2.0 in Planter including containers, rounded beds, and Greenstalks!

Growing Guide Highlights

This article explores how frost behaves in the Desert Southwest, how to plan your garden with frost (and even snow) in mind, and practical ways to prepare for sudden cold snaps when they occur.

Read: Frost in the Desert Southwest

Now’s a great time to plan a winter wellness garden. Imagine being able to step outside and harvest remedies from your yard!

Read: Winter Wellness Garden

Part 1 in a series on nocturnal pollinators: learn who the night pollinators are, why they matter in the garden, and the conditions they need.

Read: Nocturnal Pollinators

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* Premium subscription required for most web features.

This year we’ve got a gamut of gardening gift ideas from must-read books, to handy gadgets, to eco-friendly gardening goodies!

Great Gardening Reads

Gardener Scott’s Guide to Raised Bed Gardening

Gardener Scott is one of the foremost gardening experts on YouTube, and in his new book Gardener Scott’s Guide To Raised Bed Gardening he introduces gardeners to every aspect of raised bed gardening. Not only does the book have detailed information about the benefits of raised bed gardening and how to start your own raised bed garden, it’s also chock-full of great gardening advice that’s relevant to all gardening styles.

Good Bugs for Your Garden

When gardeners see bugs in the garden sometimes alarm bells go off, but it’s important to also learn about the ‘good guys’- beneficial insects that help keep garden pest populations in check. In Good Bugs For Your Garden Allison Mia Starcher teaches gardeners all about these garden superheroes and how to attract them to your garden.

The Living Soil Handbook

Jesse Frost is a market gardener (small-scale farmer) who runs the No-Till Growers channel and Grower’s Daily podcast on YouTube. Even if your giftee isn’t gardening on the scale of a market gardener, ‘Farmer Jesse’s’ book The Living Soil Handbook is a must-read for any gardener interested in building healthy garden soil and ecological gardening.

Seed Starting and Indoor Growing

Chestnut Potting Tools

These little potting tools might not look like much, but they are the handy-dandiest tools for seed starting and potting up plants! The pointed tool is perfect for dibbling seeding holes, picking up tiny seeds, and for pricking out young seedlings. The flat-ended tool is perfect for arranging and flattening soil in trays or pots. These tools are the perfect stocking-stuffer for the gardener on your list!

Soil Blockers

If the gardener on your list hasn’t given it a go yet, they’re sure to appreciate being introduced to the benefits of soil blocking. Soil blocking is space-efficient, can help reduce plastic use, and encourages healthy seedlings. To get started the 20-cell handheld soil blocker* is great for starting smaller seeds. For potting up the smaller blocks or for starting larger seeds the 4-cell handheld blocker is ideal (better yet pick up both!)

*At the time of writing, the 20-cell handheld soil blocker at Johnny’s seeds is less expensive but backordered. Lee Valley has a similar blocker that is slightly more expensive but appears to be in stock.

Microgreens Grow Kit

If your recipient is expecting a white Christmas this year, give them the gift of growing indoors with these Back to the Roots microgreens kits! Growing delicious, nutritious microgreens can be a bit of a learning curve but these kits make it super-easy for them to get started. Each kit includes a mix of different organic seeds, compostable starting trays and growing medium, as well as access to “Green-Thumb Text Support” for detailed microgreen growing instructions!

For the Garden Ecosystem

Native Wildflower Seeds

If your giftee has some open space in their garden, gifting them native wildflower seeds is sure to inspire them to create a natural garden oasis. Native wildflowers are beautiful, low-maintenance, and key for attracting pollinators and beneficial insects to the garden. For two great native seed sources to try: SFinBloom has stunning native wildflower mixes tailored to a variety of different regions and Roundstone Seeds also has a great selection of beautiful region-appropriate mixes.

Bat House

If the gardener in your life is interested in supporting all types of garden wildlife, gifting them a bat house (yes, a bat house!) is a unique gift idea. Why a bat house for a gardener? Bats are amazing hunters of all kinds of garden pests and in some areas certain bat species can also help pollinate plants!

Gardening Tools and Gear

Grampa’s Weeder

Any gardener would appreciate receiving a tool to make weeding a little bit easier! Grampa’s Weeders are well known for their design, quality, and craftsmanship. Grampa’s Weeders easily remove weeds with long taproots, with no bending over and minimal soil disturbance. Best of all they get the majority of the root out to prevent weed regrowth.

Muck Boots

Being a gardener sometimes means getting out in the garden even on days with less-than-perfect conditions. Muck boots are the perfect all-weather boots for doing just that. They’re flexible and breathable so they can be worn when it’s warm-ish out but they’re also tough and waterproof for damp days (there are also winter boots available). As a thoughtful design detail, the boot outsoles are self-cleaning so your giftee won’t be stuck walking around the garden on mud-clump-moon-boots.

Waterproof Pruning/Wash Gloves

These might not be the cutest gardening gloves around but these waterproof pruning and wash gloves are rugged, tough, and get the job done! They’re 100% waterproof so they’re great for washing down carrots, lettuce, and other garden harvests. Not only that, they’re perfect for working with pokey and irritating plants like zucchini and parsnips, so you can save your giftee from scraping and roughing up their hands and arms.

Rolling Work Seat

All gardeners know that working in the garden can be hard on the body. So what better gift to give a gardener than this rolling garden work seat with a tool tray? With this work seat, spending long hours in the garden will be a breeze. If the gardener on your list has physical or energy limitations this work seat is the perfect gift so they can enjoy gardening in comfort.

GreenStalk Vertical Planter

The GreenStalk Vertical Planter is a versatile self-watering growing system that makes efficient use of vertical space to grow a ton of produce in a small footprint. GreenStalks come in a wide variety of eye-catching colors so they’re both a growing system and garden art! GreenStalks are made from high-quality, UV-resistant plastic and come with a 5-year warranty- so they’re built strong and guaranteed to last! Use code PLANTERAPP to get $10 off your purchase of $75 or more.

Planter App and Merch!

Share the gift of the Planter gardening app with your family and friends this holiday season! Gift them a Planter Premium subscription so they can easily plan and manage their garden anytime, anywhere! We don’t have our own Planter branded gift cards (yet!) but you can gift them a Google Play or Apple App store gift card and point them to the Planter app.

This year we’ve also added brand-new planter merch so your garden giftee can show off their love for gardening and all things Planter!

If you’re like us this means you’re often searching for inspirational recipes and cooking methods to use up what you’ve grown. To help with that, we’ve compiled a few of our favorite recipes from this year that helped us use up what we had in abundance!

Mexican-Style Eggs - Contributed by Erin

Breakfast need not be neglected when it comes to using your garden abundance! We had tons of extra jalapeños and tomatoes this season, and while we love making all kinds of salsas, one of our favorite ways to use them is in ‘Mexican-style’ eggs. We eat these several times a week for breakfast and we never tire of them. Not only are they delicious, it’s also rewarding to start the first meal of the day with veggies I grew myself!

The amounts listed are what we generally use for two people but you can easily adjust the quantities to suit the number of people you’re cooking for and your preferences.

- 3-4 large eggs

- 2-3 small jalapeños, minced (adjust based on the size of your jalapenos and how much spice you like- you can also remove the ribs and seeds to make them less spicy or substitute green pepper)

- A small wedge of white onion, diced (roughly 3-4 tablespoons)

- 3-4 roma tomatoes, diced (you can use other types of tomatoes but roma tomatoes are ideal since they are more meaty and less watery- if you use larger tomatoes you may want to reduce the quantity)

- Vegetable oil (or any neutral-tasting fat of your choice for cooking)

- Salt to taste

In a large bowl, whisk the eggs together with a pinch of salt until thoroughly mixed. Pre-heat a frying pan over medium heat and add the oil. Once the oil is hot (but not smoking), add the diced onion and minced jalapeno. Cook for a minute or two until the onions turn translucent then add the tomatoes*** and another pinch of salt. Let the tomatoes cook down for a minute or two then add the well-mixed eggs.

Continue cooking, stirring all the ingredients in the pan to combine them and prevent sticking. At first the mixture will be liquid-y but after about 5 or so minutes of cooking the eggs should be set and most of the excess liquid will have evaporated leaving tasty tomato-flavored eggs. Taste and add more salt if needed.

***My husband tends to add the tomatoes before adding the eggs so the tomatoes break down and the flavor infuses the eggs. I tend to add the tomatoes near the end of cooking so that they stay intact yet still add tomato-y flavor. Try both ways to see if you prefer one over the other!

Serve with warm tortillas or toast, and if you have them refried beans!

Creamy Scandinavian Cucumber Salad - Contributed by Samantha

For the last couple of summers, I’ve had a surplus of cucumbers from my garden. I am not really fond of cucumbers, so I grow them for my husband. But only he can eat so many cucumbers, and I didn’t want all of the cucumbers to go to waste, so I looked for a way I could enjoy them, too.

I have a small collection of Scandinavian cookbooks and came across some cucumber salads. The traditional way is basically a quick-pickled style blend of cucumbers that’s usually eaten with fish. Then I came across some recipes that involved adding sour cream, apparently popular with the American Midwestern Scandinavians. I like anything with sour cream, so I tried it and made that salad all summer. Even now, as summer’s gone, I still make it! Cream makes everything delicious in my opinion. This recipe is a blend of several versions I’ve seen, and you can customize it to your liking.

- 2 Cucumbers, skin on or peeled

- 1/4 Cup of sour cream, more or less as desired

- 1 Tbsp of white vinegar, more or less as desired

- 1 Tsp of lemon juice

- 1 clove of chopped garlic

- 1 Tsp of fresh dill or 1/2 tsp of dried, more or less to taste

- 1 Tsp of salt and more to taste

- Pepper

Slice the two peeled or unpeeled cucumbers fairly thin and place them in a bowl. Sprinkle about 1 Tsp of salt over the cucumbers and let them sit. After about 15 minutes, strain out the water from the bowl. Add the sour cream to the cucumbers, adding more or less as desired. Add the white vinegar, the lemon juice, the chopped garlic, the dill, and salt and pepper as desired. Gently stir the cucumbers to evenly coat. Let it chill in the refrigerator for 1 hour before serving.

Jalapeño Cottage Garden Salad - Contributed by Samm

This summer was our first time growing jalapeños and tomatoes, and grow they did. We had a steady harvest for a few months before the summer heat rang the bell in late August, and the plants wilted away.

We used the jalapeños and tomatoes in a few meals, black bean taquitos, salads, and more. Here’s a recipe for a summer salad that has a good kick to accompany the light flavors.

Ingredients (serves 1):

• ½ cup low-fat cottage cheese
• ½ cup chopped fresh tomatoes
• ¼ cup chopped cucumber
• 1 small jalapeño, finely chopped (remove seeds for less heat)
• 2 tbsp finely chopped red onion
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 1 tsp balsamic vinegar
• Salt and black pepper, to taste

Optional Add-ins:

• Handful of chopped spinach or other greens
• Chopped bell peppers
• A pinch of crushed red pepper for extra spice

Instructions:

1. In a medium bowl, combine cottage cheese, tomatoes, cucumber, jalapeño, and red onion.
2. Drizzle with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.
3. Season with salt and black pepper, then toss gently to mix.
4. Add any optional veggies or crushed red pepper if desired.
5. Serve immediately or refrigerate for later. Keeps for 2-3 days.

This salad is perfect to enjoy in the bold summer heat, a cool fall evening, or as an appetizer for a winter feast. It’s delicious.

Deep Dish Pizza - Contributed by Peter

I love a good Chicago-style deep dish pizza, but after moving to Connecticut I haven’t found any place around that offers it. So I make my own! The sauce uses a lot of fresh tomatoes, great for when the harvest comes in. I also make extra batches of sauce and freeze them for later. For fresh tomatoes, you can simply put them in a food processor if you don’t mind the skins/seeds. If you want to avoid skins and seeds in your sauce, a saucer attachment for your mixer is a great way to speed up tomato processing.

Makes enough for a 11-12” pizza, ~8 servings

Ingredients:

Dough:

• 3 ½ tsp yeast
• 2 ¼ tsp sugar
• 1 ⅔ cup warm water
• 4 ½ cup all purpose flour
• ¾ cup olive oil
• 2 ¼ tsp salt

Sauce:

• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 small onion, grated or minced
• 1 Tbsp dried oregano
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 can (28 oz) crushed tomatoes, strain beforehand OR equivalent fresh

Toppings:

• 15-16 oz shredded mozzarella cheese
• 6 oz ground Italian sausage
• 3 Tablespoons parmesan cheese

Directions:

Dough:

1. Dissolve yeast and sugar in warm (110℉ to 115℉, use a thermometer) water in a bowl. Let stand for 5 to 10 minutes until the yeast softens and begins to form a creamy foam.
2. Mix yeast mixture, flour, oil, and salt. Dough should hold together but will be sticky.
3. Transfer dough to a buttered bowl. Cover bowl with a towel and allow dough to rise at room temperature until doubled in size, 6 hours.

The Rest:

1. Heat the olive oil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat and add the grated onion, minced garlic, and oregano. Once the onion has slightly browned (2 minutes or so) add the tomato sauce (after straining). Turn the heat down to low-medium and allow to simmer until the sauce has thickened, about 30 minutes. It has to be thick. Remove from heat and set aside until ready to be used.
2. Preheat oven to 425°F.
3. Roll out the dough and place it in a 12” pizza or cake pan, trying to get the dough to stick to the sides.  However, it never sticks to the sides for me so I have a trick: Transfer the pizza dough to the 12” deep dish pizza pan. Then, press a non-stick or greased 11” pan into the dough to squish the pizza dough up the sides, between the two pans. Keep the smaller pan in place for the next step.
4. Cook the dough by itself for 8 minutes.
5. Remove the dough. The crust should have puffed up a lot!
6. Add cheese.
7. Add the ground Italian sausage and any other toppings. Spread it raw (put the sausage between cling-wrap and roll it with a rolling pin).
8. Add the sauce.
9. Sprinkle with grated parmesan cheese on top.
10. Bake for 25 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown and the filling is set. To prevent the edges from burning, cover with foil after 10 minutes of baking.

If you’ve been scratching your head trying to figure out what to do with your harvest, we hope you’ll give one of these ideas a try! If you do happen to try one of these recipes, or if you have an awesome garden-inspired recipe of your own to share, we’d love to see it on Facebook or Instagram!

Cheers and happy gardening…and cooking! - The Planter Team

If you haven’t already seen (or heard) it, check out our latest podcast episode where Peter, Milan, and Erin chat about our garden plans and what we’re doing differently in 2025:

Peter

This year is a big one for me, garden-wise! After 4 years of not having a garden on my property, I will finally be able to walk out my door and pick a tomato off the vine. No more loading up the car with garden tools and jugs of water in the early spring to water seedlings at the community garden! Well actually, that’s a bit of a lie, as I will still continue to have a garden plot at the community garden, at least for this year. This winter we’re cutting down several trees to make a sunny spot for a veggie garden. At about 6-7 hours of sunlight, it still won’t get as much sun as the community garden, but it will get more consistent water and more attention overall. This year will be an experiment to compare how the plants do in the new garden compared to the community garden.

Hopefully at the end of the season we’ll know what’s better, plenty of sun or consistent watering? Will tomatoes actually produce fruit with just 6-7 hours of sunlight? Will leafy greens bolt less with the extra shade? Will my isolated garden fare better pest-wise than the pest-ridden community garden?

To answer these questions, I’ll be planting several identical raised beds in both gardens:

Test Bed 1 - Full Sun Veggies: Nothing needs more sun than nightshades, so this bed will have a variety of tomatoes, tomatillos, and peppers.

Test Bed 2 - Greens: Lettuce, bok choy, and komatsuna will make up this 4x4 raised bed.

Test Bed 3 - Pest Magnets: In my experience, cucumbers and squash all get hammered by pests.

Erin

This year, I moved to a new property that has more land to garden on. I am planning to sell veggies at our local farmers market (and my husband and I will eat a lot of veggies ourselves!) I started with an initial plan in a spreadsheet then I used Planter to visualize where the plants will go in the garden beds. The plant icons in Planter make the plan come to life in a way that’s tricky to do in a spreadsheet. Once I saw the plants in place I knew I had to make some tweaks to optimize the layout. Planter’s drag-and-drop interface makes it super easy to move plants around so you can tweak and make changes until you’re happy with your plan. I’ve intentionally left a few beds open in my plan. I might end up filling them or using them to trial some new ‘experimental’ plants. With Planter it’s easy to adjust my plan on the fly so I can adapt to what the season brings!

Wren

We’ve had an influx in garden pests these past couple years, so we’re going to be focusing a little more on flowers in our garden this year. I have a good amount of flower seeds but was having trouble visualizing where I wanted the flowers to go. Using the Planter app, it really helped me visualize the specific garden beds I want my flowers to be in and how I want them laid out. I feel a lot more comfortable about my plan for my yard this spring now that I know where everything is going.

Samantha

This spring I’m excited to grow a lot of onions and lettuce. I didn’t grow enough last year, so this year I’m dedicating more space to those. I always have to have a little radish patch too. I am very into horseradish lately so I’m going to grow some more this year. I’m still working on my summer garden plans and thinking about what I want to devote my time to. Tomatoes will be a must, some kind of pepper, and there will be a lot of basil. I know I need to move my strawberry patch. Right now it’s under a tree and the birds went crazy eating them. I need to decide the best new location to move the strawberries to.

My medicinal herb garden will mostly stay the same since a lot are perennials. But this year I’m loving all of the new icons that have been created for the Planter App!

Milan

My garden is split into two distinct areas. 

The first part of my garden is in my front/side yard. It features 3 prototype raised garden beds, each with different tools to support growth.

Bed number 1 is what I call my market bed. It is 20’ x 3.5’ and features metal hoops that allow me to add covers for frost, shade, or insects. 

I’ll be interplanting this bed with 6-7 determinate tomato plants. I’m choosing bush varieties that are bred to grow well in containers as well as high-heat. The variety that I’m most excited about is the Hossinator Tomato. It’s a prolific slicer that has impressive disease resistance. 

Between the tomatoes, I’m going to experiment with some lettuce plants. I want to see if the shade from the tomatoes will keep them from bolting so quickly. 

Along the front row of this bed, I’ll have several varieties of bush beans, herbs, and peppers. 

Bed number 2 is a 4’ x 8’ bed with a poly top and roll-up sides. It’s designed to emulate a high-tunnel. Once spring temperatures arrive the sides stay up until winter. The top causes this bed to still be a little warmer than the other beds so I’m dedicating it to some heat loving plants. 

I’ll be planting some indeterminate tomato plants that were bred to be grown in Florida. I’ll also be growing some eggplants alongside of them. These are labeled as combative plants, however I’m grouping them because they have similar growing needs and can handle the heat. 

The third bed in the front yard is my trellis bed. It is a 4’x8’ bed with a built in trellis. I’ll be dedicating this bed to growing cucumbers, dill, and melons. 

The second part of my garden is in my backyard. It features 4 galvanized steel raised garden beds. 

I will be planting 3 of the beds using single crops. I learned the hard way that watermelon and sweet potatoes grow really rapidly and need plenty of room to spread their vines. 

After growing corn for the first time last year, I became hooked. So, I’m excited to dedicate another bed to just corn.

Finally, I’ve wanted to try the 3-sister companion method. So, that bed will include corn, pole beans, and squash/zucchini.

I’m really looking forward to a bountiful harvest season, and I cannot wait to share with you all!

If you’re struggling to find a gift for the gardener that has everything fear not- we’ve got gifting ideas for even the most geared-out gardener!

Erin:

Garden marker

Regular ‘permanent’ markers usually become not-so-permanent in a garden! Between the rain and the UV rays from the sun, invariably the ink will fade. The garden marker stands up to the elements so it can be used for writing garden labels or labelling seedling trays without fear of losing track of which plants are where. Makes a great stocking stuffer for any gardener!

Hori hori knife

A hori hori knife is an extremely versatile garden tool. It can be used for both digging and slicing- useful when transplanting, dividing plants, and maybe even cutting out those too-far-gone weeds (not that we ever let them get that bad…right? 😅) The measuring guide on the side makes it easy to determine the correct depth when planting. This particular model from A.M. Leonard even comes with a handy twine cutter built in!

Speciality garden hoes

Garden hoes come in all kinds of shapes and sizes to tackle different weeding and gardening tasks. While it might feel like overkill to have more than one garden hoe, it really does make a difference to have ‘the right tool for the job’…and for any sizable garden area almost anything is better than hand weeding! Lee Valley has a great selection of garden hoes but one that is especially versatile is the trenching hoe.

Garden cart

While a garden cart might not be a glamorous garden gift, they are amongst the most practical gardening tools. Save time and backaches by wheeling around large amounts of compost and mulch rather than lugging them in a wheelbarrow. It’s also more efficient to cart around several trays of seedlings at once instead of making multiple trips back-and-forth. While there are many brands of garden carts available on the market, the Gorilla cart brand is well-known for its strength and durability.

Paper weed barrier

What gardener wouldn’t love to be given the gift of less weeding? This paper weed barrier from Lee Valley is an effective, eco-friendly way to cut down on weed pressure in the garden. It’s thicker than standard rolls of brown paper so it won’t tear easily. Simply roll out and cut the desired length, bury the edges with soil, then cut holes or slits to plant into.

Samantha: 

The Gardening Book by Monty Don

Monty Don might be the United Kingdom’s guru of all things gardening, but his excellent advice goes beyond the borders of Britain. The Gardening Book is a treasure trove of Monty’s horticultural expertise and includes information on small-space gardening, houseplants, shrubs, trees, and more. It is filled with beautiful pictures and, like all of Monty’s books, is a joy to read. 

The Healing Garden by Juliet Blankespoor

If you want to get a gift for someone who has taken an interest in herbalism, then The Healing Garden is a must-have book. The author, Juliet, has been growing, selling, and teaching about herbs for decades. The Healing Garden gives tips on cultivating, harvesting, and processing many different medicinal herbs. It’s filled with stunning photographs and easy-to-follow recipes. 

Sili Seedlings silicone seedling trays

Sili Seedling trays are the perfect gift for the gardener who loves reducing, reusing, and recycling!  Since the trays are made from silicone, they can be used repeatedly. They are easy to clean and can be sterilized in the dishwasher. They come in a lot of cool colors and sizes, too. 

Personalized engraved seed storage box

A custom-engraved seed storage box can be the perfect gift for the gardener with all the tools, gadgets, and seeds. This wooden box can be personalized and will make any gardener smile. There are many seed boxes on Etsy, but this shop has many 5-star ratings.

Peter

Custom Garden Sign

What do you gift the gardener who already has all the tools and equipment they need? A decorative sign so they can proudly proclaim that it’s their garden! I gifted a few of these last year from this Etsy shop and they turned out great.

GreenStalk Original Vertical Planter

You might have seen the GreenStalk Vertical Planter showcased on your favorite gardening YouTube channels…And for good reason! The GreenStalk is a super-versatile self-watering growing system that makes efficient use of vertical space to grow a ton of produce in a small footprint. The GreenStalk is made from high-quality, UV-resistant plastic and comes with a 5-year warranty- so it’s built strong and guaranteed to last! Use code PLANTERAPP to get $10 off your purchase of $75 or more.

Bootstrap Farmer Air Prune Propagation Tray

These propagation trays provide the benefit of ‘air pruning’ the roots of growing seedlings without the added learning curve and work of soil blocking. These Bootstrap Farmer Air Prune Propagation Trays are made with high-quality plastic that is built to last (and they come with a 2-year warranty!) so your giftee will get many years of life out of them. As an added bonus they come in a variety of colors- which is not only fun but also can be handy for grouping your seed starts!

Give the gift of Planter

Share the gift of the Planter gardening app with your family and friends this holiday season! Gift them a Planter Premium subscription so they can easily plan and manage their garden anytime, anywhere! We don’t have our own Planter branded gift cards (yet!) but you can gift them a Google Play or Apple App store gift card and point them to the Planter app. If your giftee already enjoys the perks of a Planter Premium subscription, why not gift them some snazzy Planter merch instead?

We here on the Planter Team wanted to share a few of our favorite recipes to make use of our fall harvests. We hope you’ll take ideas and inspiration from these recipes to use up your own garden bounty this fall!

Rhubarb jelly (and other preserves) - Contributed by Wren

I grew up making jams and jellies with my mom. She’d wake us up early on the weekend and we’d drive out to a U-Pick Strawberry field where we’d spend hours trying to get our money’s worth by filling up buckets and punnets to the brim with sweet little berries. Then we’d come home and spend the rest of the day (if not two) making jar after jar of some of the best jams I’ve ever had. I always complained about the process as a kid, but as I grew older I started noticing how fond I was of the process of jam making, and now that I’m an adult I miss those days a lot. I most often think about strawberry jam in the summer, but in the fall, that was the best time for rhubarb jelly. As someone who messes up their jams and jellies a lot more than my mom does, this recipe is pretty easy to follow (rhubarb jelly recipe: https://creativecanning.com/rhubarb-jelly/).

One of my favorite things about this recipe is how many variations you can make with it. It could just be rhubarb jelly, or you can add strawberry, or apple juice, or cinnamon! This jelly can either give you a burst of summer or fall flavor depending on what you decide to put in it.

The base ingredients are:

• 1½ lbs. Rhubarb
• 4 cups granulated sugar
• One package powdered regular pectin (1.75 oz.)

Although jelly is most often used on toast or English muffins, my favorite bread of choice to pair this jelly with is a warm, homemade waffle! Creative Canning suggests using this jelly also as a glaze for grilled meats! I’m going to have to try this.

Here are a few of my other favorite fall preserve recipes:

Bread and butter pickles: https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/bread-and-butter-pickles/

Sweet pickle relish: https://www.savingdessert.com/homemade-sweet-pickle-relish-garden-to-table/

Salsa: https://www.delishknowledge.com/the-best-homemade-salsa-for-canning/

Zucchini bread - Contributed by Wren

Last summer, my partner and I grew 8 ball squash in our garden for the first time and it made the most delicious zucchini bread! Unfortunately, the squash beetles got to the plant and completely destroyed it, so we were settled on not growing any gourds this year to hopefully be rid of the squash beetles. To our surprise, one of the old 8 ball squashes must have self-seeded because we had a new squash plant pop up all on its own in the middle of summer! And you know what that means…We gotta make zucchini bread.

I made banana and zucchini bread a lot growing up, but my partner wanted to try out making it himself. He’s really fond of this recipe: https://smittenkitchen.com/2019/08/ultimate-zucchini-bread/ because of how crispy the top can get. He said the trick is to leave it uncovered so the top doesn’t get moist (and he was right!).

You’ll need:

• 2 cups (13 ounces or 370 grams) grated, packed zucchini (or 8 ball squash), not wrung out, grated on the large holes of a box grater
• 2 large eggs
• 2/3 cup (160 ml) of a neutral oil (I use safflower), olive oil, or melted unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup (95 grams) packed dark brown sugar
• 1/2 cup (100 grams) granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon fine sea or table salt
• 1 1/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon ground or freshly grated nutmeg
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 cups (260 grams) all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons (25 grams) raw or turbinado sugar

The recipe does a good job walking you through all the steps so I highly recommend looking it up. And I have to say, it’s definitely one of the best zucchini breads I’ve ever had.

Acorn squash boats with sausage and apples - Contributed by Samantha

I’ve had an excellent little crop of “Honey Bear” acorn squash this season, so I’ve been cooking up different variations of “squash boats.” Basically, you bake halved-squash and then fill them with a mix of rice, meat, veggies, cheese, or anything you want. This recipe is a mix of several recipes I have found online. It’s easy to personalize to your liking and add or remove ingredients.

Ingredients:

• Olive oil (or any other light cooking oil)
• 3 medium to large acorn squash
• ½ of a large red onion, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 1 ½ pounds of ground pork sausage (or you can substitute rice, which would be around 7 cups of cooked rice)
• 1 large apple, chopped I like to use a sweet variety such as Honeycrisp
• 1-2 packed cups of chopped kale
• Salt
• Pepper

Optional ingredients: a few sprigs of fresh rosemary or 1 fresh sage leaf chopped up, a sprinkling of parmesan cheese, red pepper flakes.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Slice the acorn squash in half lengthwise and scoop out the seeds (save them for next years’ planting, of course). Place the halved squash upright on a baking sheet and drizzle lightly with olive oil.

Cook for 40-60 minutes until the squash is tender when pierced with a fork.

While the squash is baking, heat a large skillet on medium heat and add some olive oil. Add the onion and sauté for 2 minutes. Add the sausage and cook for around 5 minutes. (If you are using rice instead, wait until the end to add it.)

Add the garlic and apples and cook for about another 5 minutes. Add the chopped kale and continue cooking until the sausage is browned and the apple pieces are tender. Add salt and pepper to your taste. At this point, you can add any additional herbs, such as rosemary or sage. Remove the cooked squash from the baking tray to your plate. Fill your squash “boat” with the mixture from the skillet. You can add red pepper flakes or a sprinkle of parmesan cheese for extra flavor!

Roasted mixed fall veggies - Contributed by Erin

Roasting veggies is one of my all-time favorite ways to use up extra garden produce in the fall! Making roasted veggies is less about following a specific list of ingredients and more about working with the veggies you have on hand. That being said, one of our family’s all-time favorite veggies for roasting is parsnips. We tried them on a whim one Thanksgiving (store-bought) and loved their sweet, starchy, almost ginger-y taste. Now roasted veggies with parsnips are a must-have on our Thanksgiving and Christmas menus, and parsnips are a must-grow in the garden!

The original roasted mixed veggie recipe we followed was this this recipe for Roasted Vegetables from Betty Crocker. For our favorite holiday variation we replace some or all of the potatoes with parsnips and stick to the recipe mostly as written. But for everyday cooking we use this as a rough guide and swap in whatever veggies and herbs we have on hand (or, leave some out!) I find for tougher veggies like parsnips and beets it can be helpful to microwave them for several minutes first before roasting to help even out the cooking time with the more tender veggies.

Jalapeño

Recommended by Erin

Jalapeños are a classic pepper pick, but for good reason! They are versatile in the kitchen- adding a spicy kick to Mexican-style dishes- and the plants are super-easy to grow and *extremely* prolific! Just a few plants should provide you with plenty of peppers. And if you find yourself overrun with pepper harvests, no sweat- jalapeños are delicious when pickled and can also be pre-chopped and frozen. I’ve had good luck growing the Jedi cultivar from Johnny’s but there are many good seed options out there!

Lunchbox

Recommended by Erin

You might not have come across lunchbox peppers in the grocery store before but once you taste them you’ll be hooked! These tiny little sweet peppers are perfect for fresh snacking and veggie trays, although they can be cooked as well. The compact plants will be packed with oodles of peppers- so you’ll have plenty to eat in the garden harvest. While the green lunchbox peppers are edible, it’s worthwhile to leave them ripen fully to red, orange, and yellow for the best sweet flavor. Johnny’s does note- and we can confirm- that the red ones will be noticeably smaller than their yellow and orange counterparts (although all are equally delicious!)

Shishito

Recommended by Peter

If you like to live on the wild side, these peppers are for you; they are the Russian roulette of peppers. Nine out of ten are perfectly mild, then BAM, you’re hit with spice. I didn’t know this when I first grew them and only found out after offering some to my partner, who does not like spicy food. What are the chances that the one she ate would be the spicy one 😅! These peppers are delicious snacking peppers or are great grilled. When I grew them in 2021, they were extremely abundant and although very delicious, I couldn’t keep up. One or two plants should yield plenty for the average family.

Habanada

Recommended by Peter

Do you love the flavor of habanero peppers but can’t take the spice? Try growing habanada peppers, which supposedly offer the delicious flavor of habanero peppers without the zing. I’m growing these for the first time this year and will report back if they live up to the hype!

Corno di toro

Recommended by Erin

Corno di toro peppers, also known as ‘cowhorn’ peppers, are sweet peppers with a pointed, horn-like shape. Their sweet flavor is similar to a bell pepper but unique in it’s own right- perhaps more concentrated. They can be more productive than bell peppers and produce well in cooler climates. They have study skins - although not so tough that you need to take them off - that make them perfect for grilling and stuffing. They can also be eaten fresh and in salads like a bell pepper.

Cayenne

Recommended by Samantha

The easy-going cayenne is my pepper of choice. Hotter than jalapenos, and less spicy than habaneros, cayenne sits in the middle, with medium heat, and a lot of flavor. These bushy plants usually produce a lot of peppers which are perfect for drying. You can dry and grind up cayenne and use it to flavor just about any food. Like all hot peppers, cayenne is full of capsaicin, the component that gives peppers their heat. If you are looking to add more medicinal plants to your garden, cayenne is a great addition. Cayenne has been used as an herb by Native Americans for many years. Studies show that the capsaicin in cayenne may help soothe aches, enhance heart health, and more. So, if you want more capsaicin in your diet without a super intense burn, try growing some cayenne!

For educational purposes only and not to be considered medical advice. Please refer to your health care provider before using plants medicinally.

Thai chilies

Recommended by Erin

Thai chili peppers are not one single variety of chili, but in general when we refer to Thai chilies we’re referring to a small chili pod with a fruity flavor and a substantial spicy punch! If you enjoy Asian-style cooking with a kick these are a must in the garden. One or two plants should easily be enough to provide a family with ample chiles for using fresh, freezing, or processing into chili sauce. The plants are compact and low-maintenance (and did we mention prolific?) which makes them excellent candidates for container-growing and overwintering!

Poblano (Ancho)

Recommended by Milan

What poblano peppers lack in heat, they more than make up in flavor. Especially when roasted in a cast iron skillet. The smoky taste adds dimension to your weeknight dishes. When used fresh they are referred to as poblano peppers but once dried they are referred to as ancho peppers. Poblano peppers thrive in warm weather and love full sun. Provide consistent watering, keeping the soil moist but not waterlogged. Harvest poblanos when they turn dark green and glossy. They usually mature in 60-80 days after transplanting.

Serrano

Recommended by Erin

Serranos might be slightly-lesser-known than jalapeños but they are favored in Mexican dishes because of their bright ‘green’ flavor and consistent heat levels. While serranos are hotter than jalapeños, jalapeños can pack an extra-hot punch every once in a while that can throw a surprise into your dishes if you’re not expecting it! In the kitchen you can use serranos in virtually any dish where you would consider using a jalapeño. If you’re looking for the flavor of a serrano but a less intense heat level you could remove some or all of the seed membranes. Serrano plants produce plenty of fruits so probably a few will do unless your family are real spice-heads!

Hungarian wax

Recommended by Erin

Hungarian wax peppers are versatile, moderately-spicy peppers (although they do have a relatively wide range of heat levels). Wax peppers are often confused with banana peppers as they have a similar appearance, but banana peppers are milder and slightly more stout. Wax peppers start off as a pale yellow color then change to orange and red as they mature. It is common to harvest them once the fruits are fully sized but still pale yellow, but they can also be harvested at the orange and red stage. They can be used to add a spicy kick to many cooked and fresh dishes but my favorite way to prepare them is to pickle them and add them to sandwiches, pizzas, and salads.

If you’re branching out from these pepper picks and adding your own custom pepper varieties, you’ll find it easier than ever to find variety icons grouped by plant! Select one of the 34 existing pepper icons that most closely matches your custom pepper. (If you’re not sure how to create custom varieties, check out this how-to doc for step-by-step instructions.)

Peter

My garden is a 20x30 ft community garden plot since I live in the woods and the oak trees shade out pretty much everything. This year I’m excited to be growing many new varieties. I’m most excited about the Habanada peppers, which supposedly have some of the flavor of a Habanero pepper without the spice. Another variety I’m excited to try is the Cosmic Purple carrots. Up to this point, I’ve only ever eaten orange carrots. Finally, I’m trying four new cucumber varieties, all bred specifically for pickling. Last year I tried pickling some regular cucumbers and was disappointed in the texture. Hopefully at least one of these varieties will do well in my garden. I’ve positioned the cucumbers and squash in one single bed so that I can cover it to prevent the cucumber beetle and squash bugs from taking over. This bed will also have all-new soil since something wasn’t quite right with the old soil (3 years of bad harvests).

I also plan to rip out the dwindling asparagus bed and put in 2 more raised beds for vining plants like watermelon and pumpkins. In between those beds will be a large garden tool chest that I’ll build to store my shovels and garden supplies.

Back at my home in the woods, I have a GreenStalk. It’s situated on my deck in the sunniest part of the yard, although it still only gets enough sunlight during the spring before the trees get their leaves. This year I’m testing the limits by planting a Patio Choice Yellow Tomato on the GreenStalk, although I doubt I’ll get many tomatoes from it. The rest of the GreenStalk is devoted to low-light veggies like lettuce, spinach, green onions, and herbs. We don’t have proper GreenStalk support in Planter (yet), but I approximated it as you can see in the screenshot. Each layer holds 6 plants and there are 6 layers. The gray boxes indicate the gaps between each layer.

Wren

I’m fortunate to have a large yard, but I’m unfortunate to have a deer problem so my gardens haven’t expanded as much as I’d like them to. Once we have the funds to create a fully fenced in garden that’ll be a different story, but for now I stick to what I can (hopefully) protect from the deer. In my veggie garden box this year I’ll be growing parsley, sage, snow peas, turnips, and bitter melon! I don’t like to eat bitter melons, but my mother in law does, so I grow them for her. Plus they attract a lot of pollinators with their beautiful yellow flowers and deer don’t much care for them at all, so they make a good natural wall to protect my other vegetables.

I often grow produce in pots as well. I have a Kumquat tree and a Lime tree that will stay in a pot their whole life because of their small size. I’m going to try growing cucumbers in a pot this year to see if it will help me stay on top of the pests better (last year’s melons and gourds got obliterated).

I’m very passionate about pollinators and local flora and fauna so I have many flower beds with native plants (many not featured in the garden plan above). I also have a young fruit orchard that will hopefully become full fruit bearing trees one day. The deer definitely make that a fighting challenge, even with tree cages. It’s my goal to one day make my yard a thriving ecosystem for both me and the animals and bugs.

Erin

I’m working with a small suburban yard so the main challenge with garden planning is always trying to cram too many plants into a small space! In addition to packing plenty of herbs and plants into my patio containers, I have a small side yard garden and four in-ground beds in the backyard to work with. The side garden receives partial sun so I’ve selected plants that won’t mind a bit of shade (the carrots will get the most sun). The four backyard garden beds receive full sun (or close to it) so this is where I’ve added sun-loving plants. Most of these plants are old favorites but I plan to try a few ‘experiments’- this year it’s watermelon, peanuts, and okra!

Samantha

This year I’m focusing on the vegetables that my family loves to eat. I have two children who love salads, so I’m letting them help out with the lettuce and radishes. Peas are always a favorite. Bok choy is a new addition.  We love salsa so there will be plenty of tomatoes, jalapenos, cayenne, and tomatillos. You can never have enough pesto either, so I am planning on lots of basil as well. I always have a couple of pumpkins in the patch too.

I put most of my energy towards my beloved medicinal herb garden and I have quite a few plants to keep track of. A lot of plants in this garden are perennials, or they self-sow, so I don’t have to do a whole lot except to keep it weeded. A short list of some of my herbs: bee balm, echinacea, yarrow, valerian, feverfew, and skullcap. I have “weeds” like plantain, dandelion, chickweed, goldenrod, and nettles. I’ll be starting some holy basil and toothache plants soon. I am adding more catnip because my dog ate them all last year! I’m a lover of lavender and I will be adding a couple of new varieties. I have typical fruit trees such as apple and pear, but this year I want to add a quince to the collection.  They are supposed to smell amazing!

Note: If you are using Planter on Android or IoS, be sure to update to the latest version to be able to access the Seed Box.

Add seed packets to your Seed Box along with information about when you bought them (or saved them), how full the packet is, where you sourced them from, and any other notes about the seeds.

If you’ve already favorited varieties that you have seeds for, the easiest way to get started is to import your favorite varieties. Otherwise you can easily add seed packets from the varieties view or right from the seed box.

We hope you find the Seed Box handy to catalog your seed inventory and for planning your seed purchases. We’ll be continuing to roll out some very cool enhancements to the Seed Box to make the garden planning to seed purchase process super-slick!

If you have ideas for how we could improve the Seed Box or any other Planter features use the Feature Request list to upvote requests or submit a new request!

GreenStalk Original Vertical Planter

You might have seen the GreenStalk Vertical Planter showcased on your favorite gardening YouTube channels…And for good reason! The GreenStalk is a super-versatile self-watering growing system that makes efficient use of vertical space to grow a ton of produce in a small footprint. The GreenStalk is made from high-quality, UV-resistant plastic and comes with a 5-year warranty- so it’s built strong and guaranteed to last! Use code PLANTERAPP to get $10 off your purchase of $75 or more.

Bootstrap Farmer Air Prune Propagation Tray

These propagation trays provide the benefit of ‘air pruning’ the roots of growing seedlings without the added learning curve and work of soil blocking. These Bootstrap Farmer Air Prune Propagation Trays are made with high-quality plastic that is built to last (and they come with a 2-year warranty!) so your giftee will get many years of life out of them. As an added bonus they come in a variety of colors- which is not only fun but also can be handy for grouping your seed starts!

Johnny’s Serrated Greens Knife

It might feel a bit odd to give a knife as a gift, but we can assure you any serious gardener will love this Serrated Greens Knife from Johnny’s Selected Seeds! The half-moon shape makes it easy to harvest even at awkward angles, and the fine serrations offer a nice clean cut. It’s not only great for harvesting greens but could also be used to harvest zucchini, broccoli, cabbage, and more!

Park Seed Easy Tunnel

The Park Seed Easy Tunnel is an easy and inexpensive way to get started with season extension techniques! They offer convenient telescoping low tunnels covered with either poly plastic, fleece row cover, or netting depending on the desired degree of protection. The best part is how easy it is to move the tunnels around the garden to where they’re needed.

Hamilton Beach Dehydrator

While technically a kitchen gadget, the Hamilton Beach Dehydrator is the perfect gift for an avid gardener who finds themselves with gluts of produce that need preserving! Having a dehydrator means that fresh garden fruits, veggies, and herbs can be enjoyed year round- as dehydrated produce can be stored for several months- and helps prevent any precious harvests from going to the compost pile!

Spider Farmer Seedling Heat Mat Kit

A seedling heat mat might seem like an unnecessary extra piece of equipment, but for some seeds such as peppers having the added heat in the soil is crucial for good germination rates. Be sure to choose a heat mat set that comes with a thermostat and probe such as this Spider Farmer Seedling Heat Mat Kit to avoid over- or under-heating the soil. For more information on how to use seedling heat mats check out Heat Mats for Starting Seeds.

True Leaf Seed Kits

What gardener wouldn’t love getting seeds for Christmas? For gift-giving we especially love these True Leaf Seed Kits- they have a great selection of themed seed kits from salsa gardens to salad gardens to culinary herbs. The kits come in attractive gift-ready packaging and include some basic seed starting supplies so your giftee will have everything they need to get growing!

Earthway Precision Garden Seeder

For those with a large-sized in-ground garden who are direct seeding long rows of vegetables, a row seeder like the Earthway Precision Garden Seeder is a gamechanger! No more struggling to drop tiny seeds into rows by hand! The seeder comes with several different seed plates and they can also be customized to drop a huge variety of seeds. The handy row marker ensures that rows stay straight with the correct spacing- which is not only nice to look at but also makes weeding a much more efficient task.

Lee Valley Bottle Top Waterers

These Bottle-Top Waterers from Lee Valley Tools make the perfect stocking stuffer! They deliver an ultra-fine and controlled spray of water that’s perfect for seed starting- where a regular watering can may flood the trays and move or dislodge tiny seeds. The set of 4 waterers can serve a variety of purposes wherever precision watering is needed!

Adjustable Tabletop Grow Lights

For a gardener that’s new to seed starting or working with limited space, these Adjustable Tabletop Grow Lights are the perfect solution! The bendable necks offer the ultimate flexibility for indoor seed starting without needing to purchase an entire rack of grow lights. The built-in timer ensures that plants will consistently get the desired amount of light each day without having to remember to turn the lights on and off!

Planter Premium Subscription

And of course, if your recipient doesn’t already have a Planter Premium subscription, why not get them a gift card for the App Store or Google Play so they can subscribe! They’ll be able to plan unlimited gardens, use the Planter web app, customize their garden and more!

(or fall for anyone “down under” 🦘)

We want to see your gardens! 👨🏻‍🌾 Or if it’s too chilly in your area, show us your indoor seedlings!

Still haven’t planted anything? Check out our recent Growing Guides about when to plant outdoors and how to plant a spring garden.

Share a photo for a chance to win a lifetime subscription to Planter AND a Planter t-shirt 🤩🪴.

How to Enter:

1. Follow @PlanterApp on Instagram, Facebook, or TikTok.
2. Share a photo of your garden or harvest with the hashtag #MyPlanterGarden and tag @PlanterApp.
3. Comment “done🪴” on the contest post (Instagram, Facebook, TikTok) once you have done the above steps!

(*US shipping only)

The contest is open until May 14th. Three winners (one per platform) will be chosen at random on May 15th and notified.

(Not familiar with companion planting in Planter? Check out this how-to article and our blog post on companion planting for more info.)

Install the latest version of Planter to start using the enhanced companion planting features:

• Icons that show companion plant benefits and combative plant drawbacks at a glance

  

• Arrows to indicate which plant is offering a benefit or causing a problem (in some cases, it’s both!)

  

• The rationale for why the plants are considered companions or combative, so you can decide which relationships are most important in your garden plan

We’ve been diligently digging through companion planting resources to ensure the companion and combative plant relationships in Planter are as current and well-backed as possible. We’ll continue to update relationships as new information becomes available!

With the enhanced companion planting features, you might notice there are some common plant relationships that have been excluded:

• Flavor: because flavor is subjective, we are not including relationships where the primary benefit or drawback is a change in flavor.
• Intercropping: since Planter doesn’t support intercropping (yet!) we haven’t included relationships where the benefit comes from growing in the same garden space e.g., where a fast-growing plant is planted in the same space as a slower-growing plant.
• Trap crops: trap crops are plants that pests prefer to eat, therefore keeping them away from your desired crop. Since trap cropping often involves planting the trap crop a short distance away from the plants you want to protect, creating a protective trap crop border, or removing the trap crop once it becomes heavily infested, we have not included trap crop relationships.
• Similar needs: we have not classified plants with similar growing requirements as companion plants. To find plants with similar growing requirements, check out the How to Grow info in Planter.

Opinions can be mixed on whether plants in the same family (e.g., brassicas, nightshades, cucurbits) are companions or combative. Some say they are companions since they have similar needs. Others say they are combative since they can share pests and diseases and in some cases can compete for nutrients. Where information conflicts, we classified plants in the same family as combative.

If you’re not planning on using companion planting in your garden you can now switch the companion planting indicators off. Just select the three dots in the upper-right of your garden then uncheck Show companion info:

We hope you find these updates handy! As always, if you have Planter feature requests you can log them and upvote existing requests in the feature request list. We regularly review this list to plan upcoming features.

Happy garden planning!

- The Planter Team

Planter

This garden planner app helps you arrange your garden and learn how to grow veggies. With its intuitive drag-and-drop interface, you can arrange your veggie garden in minutes. One of our favorite features is that it highlights companion and combative plant information right there, with green (companion) or red (combative) circles. Planter uses the square foot gardening technique for easy spacing, but everything about plants, including spacing, is customizable. It has over 80 fruits and vegetables, but you can always add a custom plant if your favorite isn’t included. On top of that, it has thousands of seed varieties so you can differentiate between your jalapeño and bell peppers.

The app also contains a gardening schedule for planting or transplanting times. With Planter, you’ll know exactly when to start seeds indoors, transplant seedlings, or start seeds outdoors in your garden.

Planter is available on Android, iOS, and web.

LeafSnap

A plant identification app that uses visual recognition software to identify trees and plants in seconds. The app has a vast database of plants, including over 90% of all known species. You can take a photo of a plant, and the app will identify the species, provide detailed information about the plant, and even suggest similar-looking plants.

The app also has indoor houseplant care information, so once you know what you’ve got, you can care for it.

LeafSnap is available on Android and iOS .

PictureThis

Another plant identification app that uses AI to recognize and identify plants, flowers, and trees. You can take a photo of a plant, and the app will provide detailed information about the species, including its name, description, and care tips.

PictureThis is available on Android and iOS.

Planta

An indoor plant care app that provides customized care instructions, watering reminders, and identification features. The app features a vast database of over 20,000 plants and provides personalized care advice based on your plant’s specific needs. The app also has a plant identification feature that allows you to take a photo of a plant and receive information about the species, care tips, and potential problems.

Planta is available on Android and iOS.

Moon and Garden

Taking a different approach, this gardening app offers gardening advice according to the lunar cycle. The app provides a lunar calendar that shows the best dates for sowing, pruning, and harvesting based on the moon’s phases. The app also provides a list of plants that are favorable to each lunar phase and includes tips on gardening techniques such as composting, irrigation, and pest control. There is a also a nice community feature to ask and answer questions.

Moon and Garden is available on Android and iOS.

Plantix

A plant disease identification app that uses machine learning and image recognition to identify and diagnose plant health problems. The app has a database of over 90 plant diseases and pests and can diagnose a problem by analyzing a photo of the affected plant. The app also provides treatment recommendations and prevention tips to help you maintain healthy plants. Plantix focuses on the most common food crops and farmers, so it doesn’t contain every veggie a home gardener might grow, but it’s great for common veggies.

Plantix is available on Android.

That’s a wrap

So there you have it, the best gardening apps for iOS and Android! These apps are perfect for those who want to make gardening more accessible and fun, whether you’re an experienced gardener or just starting out. With features like plant identification, garden planning, and care tips, these apps have everything you need to cultivate a bountiful garden or care for your indoor plant babies. So download your favorites and get ready to dig in! Happy gardening!

Seeding Square

Translate your garden plan from Planter into your garden with the handy Seeding Square! This nifty square has color-coded holes to help you sow the seeds of your favorite plants following recommended per-square-foot spacings. The graduated dibber helps to ensure your seeds are planted at the right depth, too.

Gardening Socks

The best socks to garden in are usually boring old black socks (they never get dirty!) But gardening-themed socks make for a fun holiday gift that lets the recipient show off their passion for gardening even when they’re not in the garden!

Gardening Apron

Serious gardeners will love this Roo gardening apron. It’s not just any old apron with pockets- it opens at the bottom allowing you to quickly offload a large harvest into a wash bin or storage container. This is a must-have for gardeners that grow lots of tomatoes, peppers, or squash.

Garden Tool Set

If your giftee is just starting out with gardening, snap up a handy garden tool set for them! A basic but sturdy set like this one from Friskars is perfect for new gardeners.

Indoor Hydroponic Garden

How do you scratch that gardening itch during the winter? Move the garden indoors, of course! AeroGarden Hydroponic Gardens are easy to use and will provide fresh herbs, lettuce, or even cherry tomatoes year-round!

Mini Greenhouse

Mini greenhouses are great for protecting tender seedlings and plants from harsh winds, driving rain, and chilly-ish weather, or for an indoor seed-starting setup. For outdoor use, be sure to weigh the mini greenhouse down (or otherwise secure it to the ground or a fence) and use extra fastenings to hold down the shelves.

Garden Labels

Gardeners can always make use of an extra set of garden labels to help keep track of seedlings and plants. Garden labels make a great stocking-stuffer!

Gardening Hat

Spending a lot of time in the garden means a lot of potential for sun exposure. This Einskey gardening hat is inexpensive, but it stands up to the elements. After a full season of daily use, the only noticeable wear is a slight color fading. The under-the-chin drawstring may not be the most fashionable choice, but it’s a lifesaver on windy days!

Garden Trug

A garden trug is a super-handy flexible basin for harvesting, washing produce, lugging around compost and soil- or just about anything really! They are available in a wide variety of sizes and colors so be sure to choose the one that’s right for your intended recipient (or yourself!)

Soil Sieve

This compact soil sieve is great for sifting soil and compost, and you can also use it for rinsing off your veggies! It’s not the biggest sieve on the market, but it’s the perfect size for sifting potting mix for seed starting and for sifting soil in smaller garden spaces.

Kneeling Pad

A comfortable kneeling pad is a must-have for gardeners. Having a kneeling pad helps tackle long weeding, seeding, and transplanting sessions without getting scraped up knees. Gardeners who have trouble kneeling may prefer a garden seat instead.

Grow Bags

Even if your recipient mostly gardens in-ground or in raised beds, every avid gardener can make use of fabric grow bags. Great for patio gardening, these bags are lightweight and easy to move around, so plants can be repositioned as needed throughout the season. Grow bags have very good drainage, so make sure your giftee knows to keep an eye on watering.

Gardener’s Hand Care

A hand care gift basket is a thoughtful gift for gardeners. Include some gardener’s hand soap, gardener’s hand cream, a nail brush and other hand care tools to clean and soothe hard-working hands!

Planter Premium Subscription

If your recipient doesn’t already have a Planter Premium subscription, why not get them a gift card for the App Store or Google Play so they can subscribe! They’ll be able to plan unlimited gardens, use the Planter web app, customize their garden and more!