Mobile Apps for Gardeners

Even the advanced gardener needs a little help to keep track of everything going on in their garden. When to water when to feed etc.

Here are 3 categories of apps useful all gardeners from novice to expert:

WEATHER APP 

This is probably the most important tool in the gardeners’ digital arsenal.

There are several weather apps available on pretty much all platforms including Android and iOS.  The weather apps aren’t always spot on accurate but it gives you an idea of what to expect.  If a tropical storm is on its way, you won’t need to water your plants outside but you will need to ensure that all plants are properly supported.  

Say,  you are growing corn, tomatoes, fruit trees or even mature trees. Try to shield them from the worst of the strong winds and heavy rains if possible and if not possible, provide adequate support to ensure they do not bend over or break. You can also cut weak branches or harvest exposed fruit and veggies.  The last thing you need is a branch through a window or bent over corn stalks.

There are several ways to make your plant or trees weather storms and grow stronger as a result as well but we will get into that in another post.

PLANT IDENTIFICATION APP  

You are walking by on a street in a residential area and you see a gorgeous flower that stops you in your tracks or a beautiful potted plant in an office building or a simple yet elegant tree on the side of the road.  Curiosity kicks in.
These apps below can help identify the plant for you quite easily.  First, you take a picture of the plant (preferably close up), upload the image via the app, then the app gives you a series of plants that look similar to the image you have taken. Pick the plant that closely matches the image you have taken and voila! A few things to note though:

A few things to note though:

• For these apps to work effectively, pictures of the plants you take need to be clear with very little obstructions.  So the better your image, the better the plant match.
• You will need a data connection on your phone.
• Be prepared to scroll through a long list of possible matches so be patient and peruse the matches until you find the closest match.
• Always ensure you match the plant you have taken to the correct ‘possible match’ the app comes up with.  It not only helps generate a history of all plants you have matched within the app but it helps the app learn more about matching and will provide more accurate results the more it is used.

Gardening Information.  

We are working hard to make the LGC website a treasure trove of gardening information in Lagos and surrounding areas so sit tight!