Planter: Garden Planner Reviews

by BradyHoggard

One of the coolest things about Planter is the ability to build a garden layout. I was able to pull in all of the plants that I wanted to include it in my garden to plan the layout. It does take several clicks to add each plant, which is a bit inconvenient, but it’s functional for my purposes.

Something that I wish this included was better planting, scheduling options. For one, the free version does not allow me to create notes, which is a bummer. Also, in order for me to look at planting dates for my garden that I’ve built, I have to go find each individual plant with several clicks to look at the planting schedule and timelines. It would be awesome if Planter showed that information more readily or had automated prompts with reminders about planting timelines based on what I have added to my garden map. It’s far too many clicks as it is, and as I can’t create notes, I have to build this plan outside of Planter entirely.

by Mgritt

I’m excited to use Planter this year as I get set up with a new garden. However, there are a few things that would be really helpful and would make Planter better. First, it would be nice if it gave spacial recommendations. For example, plant broccoli 18”-24” apart. I have to keep jumping over to google. Second, if you do have a plant that takes up more space than “1 square” I wish you could manually adjust the squares. So I could combine 2-3 squares and put 1 broccoli to better show how my plants are spaced. Side note, are the squares supposed to be “1 square foot?”
As I said, I still think Planter will be really helpful, and I did pay for the year to see how it goes. If these features were added with continued improvements, I’d probably be a forever customer.

by MyGrainMama

I like the relative simplicity of using Planter. I especially like being able to drag and drop plants into a grid of my planting area to see how much room the need and also which plants do or do not get along with each other.

One thing I’d like to see added is the germination time for seeds.

Also, there is a glitch that allows some plants to appear implantable, which is ridiculous, of course. Yet, for some plants, Planter indicates that most gardeners do not 1. start the plant indoors, 2. start the plant from transplants, or 3. start the plant by direct sowing. Those are all the possibilities, yet Planter provides no guidance for any of those methods for certain plants. (I submitted a bug report, but never heard back, and the last time I checked, it hadn’t been fixed.)

by Wasabi Of Boston

Beautiful app. Would be an excellent app for a complete beginner. However, it’s severely lacking and not usable for more advanced gardeners who grow multiple varieties of the same plant because there’s no label.

For companion planting, you wouldn’t use a whole square foot for a marigold for example. It would be planted in the same square foot as a vegetable. Same with root vegetables like carrots. So Planter should allow overlapping or multiple plants in the same grid.

There’s no month by month planning for spring crop, summer crop, and fall crop for the same spot. I currently pay $29/year to use Growveg and would gladly switch to Planter when it’s able to plan month by month and keep track of previous years for crop rotation. Mainly because Growveg is a desktop application and I want something more mobile.

by Sammimarie-3

I bought the lifetime license for $10. It’s a decent app for a small garden. I have used territorial seed garden planner for years, but it’s about $20/ year. I’m trying SFG this year so I thought I would try it. The free version only lets you create one bed, so I upgraded.

I like that you can customize your specific varieties of vegetables and it is easy to set up. The icons and photos are pretty. I am curious if I can include plant labels in my plan. (For different varieties)

The buttons are a bit finicky. Single tap a veggie to get details, long tap to plant it. (I found that I was always accidentally tapping the information instead of planting). Annoying. It could easily be reversed. Single tap to plant, long tap for information. Or just make it separate features.

I also had to select the “tap to plant “ feature over and over. I wish it would stay on until I turned it off.

I found deleting and moving veggies to be finicky too. It’s a drag and drop, but getting it in the exact spot was a challenge. Sometimes I had to attempt to delete an item multiple times. This feature needs some more development, in my opinion.

So, it’s a good app. Not amazing, but it’s good enough for what I need (which was mostly plant spacing and figuring out the plants are beneficial to one another.) I’m hoping that since I bought the license I will benefit from upgrades.

by First Time SFG Gardener

I have all my plants mapped out by square. Instead of doing the research into which plants like and dislike being near each other ( Planter provides the info if desired), I ended up putting plants where I wanted them and moved them if a red spot showed up between two plants. Easy. A green spot means they benefit each other. No spot means they don’t help or hurt each other. Planter doesn’t let you plant things too close to each other. Tomatoes need 4 squares for one plant. Radishes can be planted 16 per square foot square. The veggies even change color/shape sometimes when you select another variety.

by Layweebookfreak

Planter is so pretty and easy to use! When you place a plant on a square it will tell you if they are good campions to it’s neighbor or if they will be competing against each other. It also says how much of each plant you can place in a square foot. When you click on the plant, it not only gives you example pictures of the different varieties, but it also gives a lot of information about caring for the plant.
Helpful tip: If you cannot find a plant, then search for it and it will tell you which group it is under! I searched for Zucchini and it let me know that it was a type of squash!

by Meghan MacRae

Update: Thanks for help adding plants! You're very responsive! I've added several plants now. It was easy, and there were so many icons available! Love Planter!

Only a week into using this, but find seed box is great. I like being able to catalogue my sources and varieties in list format. I overbuy seeds, too, and this keeps me from having to pull the seeds out of storage to plan my next move. I read criticisms about the varieties available in Planter , but I always end up creating my own so I can include the MOST notes from the sources. I really like being able to do that. I haven’t figured out how to create a whole new plant, but I’ve found I can get close enough with what’s offered, then create a variety. I don’t have a lot of ornamentals at this point, and I can foresee that it would be a significant limitation if that was your style. I look forward to exploring the calendar feature. I can’t offer an evaluation of that yet.

by Africanknightsky

I got really into gardening last year and didn’t have a way of tracking what I was planting. I found Planter and went ahead and spent the money to get the full version (which was a one time fee instead of subscription which I LOVE). The free version (at least at the time of writing this) only allowed one garden. So I created one garden for what I planned to plant and another garden for what is actively planted. From there you can add notes to each of your plants to track when you planted them, info about the plants, etc. which allows for a better logbook.

I do wish there was a better way to visualize drip irrigation and things like that. There are currently backgrounds you can apply to the squares but it’s still a little confusing. The coolest thing about Planter is that they seem to take feedback seriously. You can see a bit of the product backlog and other ideas and suggestions out there from Planter . Very very cool!

by Kalex In NR

LOVE Planter! We have been using graph paper and pencil for years and having to keep in mind the companion plants, and spacing needs. Too much work. Now, Planter does it for us. Our 11 x 4 foot raised garden bed (24 inches high) is ready for what we have planned. Love the information given and the choices that include not only veggies, but my fruit bushes and flowers. I’ve been able to involve the kids in the planning and decision making in a modality that they love - my iPad! They are actually reading all of the descriptions provided on the individual page! And, being a teacher, I love that. We are very excited to begin our planting this spring. Thank you.

P.s. hoping you can add green beans vs. yellow beans, and summer squash vs. zucchini so that the kids can SEE the difference on their garden planner. We are on the ‘visual’ side of the learning curve.

by ExecPastryChef

I live off grid and have several gardens. Planter allows me to keep track of what I have planted and where. Super frustrating to try and keep track on paper. Also this year I decided to try square foot gardening as it kills me to have to thin plants and kill perfectly healthy seedlings and square foot gardening prevents that and take a very logical approach to gardening. Planter is a great match to that style of gardening! I appreciate the ability to add in your own particular strain of plant you are growing if it not already listed and to choose your icon as well.
I find the calendar at a glance useful to help me know when to start seed, when to transplant and when to direct sow based on my personal frost date. I’ve been using Planter for about a month so far and the gardening season has just began. Will leave an update once we get fully into the season.

by Unhappy Costumer 27

I love Planter! I’ve been using it to plan my first garden at our new house. I love that it is very visual by showing images of the plants and also that it helps you pick plants that work well together and avoid plants that are combative towards each other.
I would 100% pay for Planter if it also offered height of plants when mature as well as a solar map to help plan so the taller plants are further north and the shorter plants further south so the short plants don’t get blocked out by the shade of the tall plants.
Another awesome feature would be an auto- fill garden where you pick what you want to plant and it automatically lays the garden out for you accounting crop relationships, plant heights, & so on.
Overall great app! Thank you so much for creating it!

by Shana A

I should probably be getting a commission for all the people I have recommended Planter too! It has all the information in one spot that previously I had to go to about 10 websites for. I’m giving it five stars because it is great but I’m hoping that the creator sees some recommendations that would make this perfect:

1) allow us to have a half square in our gardens. My bed is 2 1/2 by 12 feet. And it’s not a big deal to just know that I actually have two lettuce in the front row and not the 4 it actually shows but it would be nice for OCD people like me if it was correct 😬

2) Allow us to manually override your recommended squares per plant. For instance, you recommend four square feet per tomato plant. I usually only have one square per tomato so I had to put in a red raspberry in place of my tomatoes 😂

3) again, this is for the OCD people like me! I try to add petunias and added a picture but I cannot for the life of me delete the background! I usually don’t have any problem with that and use a transparent PNG file but it’s not working.

Despite the lack of absolute perfection, I highly recommend Planter!

by Youniquely Nichole

I’m scatter brained and have a hard time remembering where I plant anything. Planter has saved my gardens time and time again, and is phenomenally useful at planning out new ones.
They don’t have everything listed in their plant section, but it takes only a couple minutes to add your own. There’s minor details that aren’t accurate (some of the fruits are missing some companion plant listings), but again it only takes a moment to add them in.

The only suggestion I would have is the ability to add in disease and pest risks on plants. It covers all the basic ones for veggie gardens, but I also use it to organize flower beds and succulents/cacti, which are at risk to other types of diseases and pests. But other than that it’s a 10/10.

by Pollito Chiquito

I wanted an all-in-once place guide that would tell me how many plants I could plant per square, when you start seeds vs when to speak, and which ones to avoid planting next to each other. This is that app! And, after playing with it for about 20 minutes, I knew I wanted to pay for the full year subscription. Would be nice to have some features but, based on other reviews, the developer seems responsive and open to ideas, so I’ll be making some suggestions and cannot wait to see how it will be even more awesome than it already is.

by Nanasue5

Want to start a garden but don’t know where to start? That was me. Then I figured that there had to be an app for this since there is an app for everything. I was right. There are a few but after reviewing them I decided that this app looked like it was what I needed. I was not mistaken. Planter has everything you need to help you learn about the plants, plot out your garden, what plants to plant together and so much more. In addition to all the features it was easy to learn and use. I’m now excited rather than stressed about planting my garden because now I know just how to do it.

by Avid-reader

I originally started using Planter to keep track of the flowers I had planted in my backyard so I could add more of the same plants in the coming years. Then I started using it to plan a vegetable garden for next year. Planter contains so many features that I find helpful - being able to edit the information on plants preloaded in Planter , being able to add plants and plant varieties, having information on companion plants, and most importantly the calendar. There are a few things that would make Planter just perfect but it’s so close to perfect that I highly recommend it.

by Lutzbone

I started using Planter to plan out my garden as a novice. At first, I just wanted an app to help me remember what I planted where (I didn’t have fancy signs or even stakes handy to label anything!) Then I found Planter which goes beyond simple mapping with the companion/combative plant feature, telling you what plants like and dislike each other as neighbors. Wow! I went ahead and upgraded, not because I really need the features (the basic app has all I need as a beginner with a single 10’ x 10’ plot) but to support Planter so it can continue to exist and improve.

I mentioned Planter to my mom who is an expert gardener and sometimes struggles with technology. I thought she might find it interesting, but didn’t expect her to use and enjoy Planter as much as I do! She even learned a few plant relationships herself, which is amazing considering her encyclopedic knowledge. It is a testament to Planter’s intuitiveness and reliability that a less tech-savvy person like my mom was able to master it and get so much value from it.

by CoconutShrimp

Planter is pretty great! You can find a wide variety of fruits, veggies, herbs…in the free version and add them to your garden! In the free version you get a garden size up to 40x40 and you only get one, but it’s so easy to arrange and get ideas for your garden, that it’s worth it! There’s a ton of information on most plant varieties so you know what grows well and what to expect from each one. There is also a way to order seeds (haven’t tried that yet, but likely will), so you can get exactly what you are looking for! I’m excited to try out some of the other features in Planter !

by NatureEstie

Planter has been absolutely amazing! Not only is it well laid out so that nothing is confusing or hard to find, but it is packed full of useful information! I can look up pests, diseases, growing season, and more about each type of plant. It will also tell me whether or not two plants will benefit each other if there are planted next to each other or not. I like that I can also pick a variety so I can lay out my garden correctly and most efficiently. Also has a section (seed box) where you can input your seeds so you can keep track of what year they were bought and how much you have! I have noticed that the larger gardens are still in beta but I haven’t had any issues with them. I think the only thing that was a small inconvenience is that not every brand of seeds are in Planter . Where I live there are some very popular brands that are not in the system. However, Planter allowed me to input the brand anyway and save it to my list. So all in all a wonderful, easy to use app that is packed full of amazing information and resources as well as fun to use!

by Leah Voigt

I used to map out my garden on paper every year and it took weeks to jot down all the companion plants and try to arrange them just right. this app has been a saving grace. Not only has it saved me lots of time, it also has let me know of some plants that don’t get along which I hadn’t known. Additionally it shows when to plant and transplant which is a much easier way of keeping it all straight than my previous paper too. Sooo much wonderful knowledge on every garden plant and it even lets you keep track of sunspecies.

by SpongeBobismyhero

I have full access and I LOVE being able to plan all of my garden beds! I am big on companion planting, permaculture, polyculture, guilds, and square foot gardening. I love that I can see the companion plants and combative plants so easily. I would love for us to be able to contribute to expanding Planter by adding our plants (maybe the developer looks at customer additions and expands the plant selection?) I love being able to add my own plants, and there is already a great selection. I’m really enjoying Planter, it is saving so much time and making the planning stage more fun!

by ElizBee2021

This is a great app! I spent the last few dark months of winter planning to expand my garden with new beds and containers and changed my plan several times. Planter made it really easy to switch things around. I LOVE the way it tells you what should and shouldn’t be planted together. Also, the developer is very responsive to questions and constantly updates and adds new features. I highly recommend Planter!been very helpful, because I didn’t really think that much about what went next to what before .

by Rachelfrommaine

I never write reviews, but have really found Planter so helpful that I felt compelled. It’s really user friendly, and actually very helpful for planning with the companion plant feature. I do wish there were a way to visualize multiple separate garden plots at the same time, as I have four 4x4 beds and there’s no way to visualize them all on one spread. I got around this by just naming each bed with the veggies planted there, and it works well enough, as I can at least see the 4 titles listed out together.

by PinwheelBlows

I have multiple Garden books with notes in the margins but this this app tool is right at my iPad finger tips!
Yes there is a tiny bit of learning curve, very much worth your investment. I’ve been sketchy out garden plots on paper for years but no more I use this app! No more erasing or starting over.
If my plans change, weather conditions cause issues, or seeds didn’t germinate as I hoped THEN I can make on the spot adjustments to my garden size or sowing schedule. If I create new plots or use containers it’s easy to create a New Garden with this app to meet my square foot raised beds Wonky Garden layout.
If you can’t find the specific plant your sowing or transplanting then my TIP is to select something within the plant “Family” ex: leafy, root, bush, vining, brassica etc. Just add your specific plant variety to the handy “notes” section or give your plot a specific name to identify.

Enjoy your harvest!