If you haven’t yet seen this month’s feature article, “Oh No, What’s Wrong with my Plant?” I would highly recommend reading it before you continue. It is a comprehensive guide to the kind of online help available to the gardener facing that perennial question (no pun intended): “What’s wrong with this plant?” Most of the resources discussed in that article address this question for both ornamental and edible plants. In my own research into apps and online resources, I discovered a few that would be of particular interest to ornamental gardeners, especially those seeking help with garden design.
Most of us are still figuring out how to incorporate natives into our gardens. If you’re looking for design assistance for that endeavor, I recommend a downloadable book titled Native Plants for the Small Yard: Easy, Beautiful Home Gardens that Support the Local Ecology, developed by Lehigh Gap Nature Center of Slatington, Pennsylvania, and written by one of its staffers, Kate Brandes, an environmental scientist who’s been a Master Gardener with Penn State Extension. There’s also a related podcast at Backyard Ecology.net.
For more native plant design templates, check out RESOURCES/Anne Arundel Watership Stewards, which features a Conservation Landscape Design Tool with templates in multiple sizes (60 sq.ft., 90 sq. ft., 120 sq.ft., 180 sq.ft) for the following types of designs:
- meadow
- focal tree
- typical kidney
- woody screen
- butterfly
Once you choose a type of design, you’ll be presented with soil and sun exposure options, along with detailed plant and materials lists and installation instructions, plus a template like the one pictured below. The Watershed Stewards of Anne Arundel are a very busy group! Read more about their efforts on the website, AAWSA.org.
I discovered the Watershed Stewards while looking for native garden design resources at the Plant Northern Virginia Natives website, a part of the Plant Virginia Natives.org group. One of the many resources offered there is the Plant NOVA Natives/Quickstart Guide, which, in addition to directing readers to the AAWSA design tool, includes a couple pollinator garden design templates. Be sure to also check out the extensive and well-curated list of resources for native plant landscaping offered at the Plant Virginia Natives website. The Resources About Landscaping With Native Plants page includes a list of websites, tools, books, videos, and podcasts from highly-regarded experts and organizations. And check out the Yard Design Tool in that list, which is designed to help property owners in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed create a plan to install a Rain Garden or Conservation Landscape in their yards. It even emails a Planting Plan to you when you finish!
One of my new favorite websites is the BugGuide.Net. That’s mostly because insects are playing a bigger role in my gardens, a development predicted by climate scientists. My coneflowers (Echinacea), once a problem-free mainstay of my sunny garden, are raggedy, hole-covered shadows of their former selves — and it seems to be more than just a snail problem. I find myself studying holes in the leaves of many plants and eyeing unusual insects throughout my gardens. If I don’t know for sure that it’s a beneficial insect, I get help from the BugGuide — a large online community sponsored by Iowa State University’s Department of Entomology. It features a “Clickable Guide” for identification and allows you to post a photo on the “ID Request” page, where a member who recognizes “your” insect can comment. Frankly, it can be fun just to look at the recently-submitted photos under ID Requests; lately there have been some cool close-ups of cicadas.
APPS
This was my first foray into the world of gardening apps, which is clearly an expanding field. I should note at the outset that all references to commercial products or trade names do NOT imply endorsement by Piedmont Master Gardeners or the Virginia Cooperative Extension or bias against those not mentioned.
There are several plant identification apps. For a detailed review and assessment of these apps by a scientist in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources at Michigan State, read “Plant identification? There’s an app for that—actually several!” at Michigan State Extension. Dr. Hill tests the apps with photos of flowering ornamentals, grasses, and weed seedlings. Which apps scored highest? PictureThis and iNaturalist. She encourages all users of apps to confirm the identification with a reputable source, such as government or university sites. The most reliable way to search is by using the scientific name (Latin genus and species).
The iNaturalist app (Android / Apple IOS) can help you identify both plants and animals. This app is a joint initiative of the California Academy of Sciences and the National Geographic Society. I plan to use it with my phone on hikes and even walks in my own yard. With iNaturalist, you can photograph your observations of living things, share them with others on the app, and get identification help from experts, plus you’ll see locations where others have seen the same thing.
If a mobile garden journal sounds appealing, you might want to try this free app: Gardenize (Android / Apple IOS). This app allows gardeners to make notes and add their own photos for each of their plants and gardens. The photos can be annotated, and you can draw on them with a drawing tool. This app also has a Facebook-style social media feature: you can use it to connect with garden friends, share plant information, and view a news feed. I have not tried this app myself.
I did try the LeafDoctor app, hoping it would provide a quick diagnosis of leaf spots. As it turns out, the app is designed to measure the extent of diseased tissue, which can help in monitoring the effectiveness of a treatment. In any event, it was trickier to use than I had expected. Then I discovered that the tool I was hoping for — a diagnosis based solely on a photo of a diseased leaf — was still largely in the realm of science fiction. But pioneers in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning are busily developing such apps. Check out the article about the high school student who developed a machine learning app called PlantMD to help her mother identify diseases on her roses, Student Develops an AI App that Diagnoses Plant Diseases, University of Georgia News (2019). Then there’s the AI app developed by Penn State scientists to help cassava farmers in Africa, who can now “wave their phones in front of a cassava leaf” to obtain a diagnosis and treatment options. Read about it at PlantVillage/Penn State University.
Until these AI apps are more widely available, the best apps currently available for help in diagnosing plant problems are part of the Purdue Plant Doctor App Suite.
Several apps are available for assistance with garden design. The iScape app allows you to create a virtual landscape design, which sounds like fun. You start by taking photos of your site and downloading them; after that you can add plants and landscape features and move them around. For a brief video showing how it works, go to the website, and hit the “Watch Video” button. This app is not cheap; there’s a pared-down version that’s free, but to play with more than a few plants and other features, you have to pay almost $30/month.
Apps and websites can be very valuable tools for gardeners, and they can also provide a fun new way to interact with nature and learn more about what’s living in your garden.
SOURCES:
Pest Management Guide 2021/Va.Coop.Ext.
“Garden Apps,” Clemson Coop.Ext. Home & Garden Information Center, Clemson HGIC
Purdue Plant Doctor App Suite, Purdue University
Alliance for the Bay/Design Your Yard Online
“Plant identification? There’s an app for that—actually several!” Michigan State University.edu
