The garden assistant

The garden assistant helps you think through questions about what you grow and record work as you go. It uses information available in the garden you are asking about. Add context when something important is missing from your records.

#What it can see

The assistant can use your garden’s areas, plants, supplies, seed trays, sowing calendar, and watering setup. It has tools to look up records. A conversation about a plant also includes recent activity, harvests, and photos for that plant. Some context is limited to recent entries; do not assume it has read every record.

For watering, it can refer to schedules and recorded runs. A recorded run is not a sensor measurement confirming water reached a plant. Tell the assistant if a hose failed, a timer changed, or another detail differs from the record.

It can also record things when you ask: add a plant or area, log work, record a harvest, add supplies, update seed-starting milestones, or save a memory about your garden. Your garden permissions still apply. Review the resulting record if the details need adjusting.

Assistant conversations are visible to garden members, including viewers. They are not part of a garden’s public page.

#What it can’t see

The assistant does not read your other gardens, gardens you follow, or someone else’s private records from the conversation you are in. It cannot observe what happened outside the information available to it. Describe relevant conditions and observations when asking for advice.

#Chat

Open Garden assistant from your garden and ask a question or describe work you want to record. For example: “What should I consider planting next?” or “I watered the tall bed this morning.”

For a particular plant, use Ask about this plant on its page. You might ask what could explain a change in its leaves or what to check next. Include a close photo, and add more photos later if you have permission to edit the garden.

The assistant can save memories such as your soil type or a bed that floods. You can see, pin, and delete those memories from its page.

#The plant doctor

A plant conversation can offer Run a full diagnosis when you ask about a problem. This uses the conversation, photos, and available plant history to suggest possible causes, explain confidence, and propose a check or next step. It also considers recorded supplies and previous applications.

A full diagnosis has a separate allowance from ordinary chat. You choose whether to run it; see pricing for the current allowances.

Read the confidence and suggested checks before acting. A photo may not be enough to distinguish causes. Confirm advice before an irreversible change or treatment, and follow product instructions for anything you apply. The saved diagnosis lets you return to the suggestion and compare it with what happened afterward.

#Harvest photo scanning

A harvest photo can be used to estimate quantities, units, and value, then fill the harvest form. Check the estimates before saving. You can enter measurements or correct the crop details, and the photo stays attached to the harvest.

#The garden briefing

The briefing summarizes recent activity and things that may need attention. It appears on the garden dashboard. Refresh frequency depends on the garden’s plan and whether its records have changed. Read-only gardens do not generate new briefings.

#What it costs

Each account gets a one-time starter allowance for chat, plant diagnoses, and harvest photo scanning. This allowance does not expire.

A subscribed garden has a shared monthly allowance. Each member’s use draws from that garden’s pool, so invited people do not need their own subscription to use it. Use in another subscribed garden draws from that garden’s allowance.

During a new garden’s trial, people use their own starter allowances instead of a shared monthly pool. If you used yours elsewhere, the assistant may be unavailable to you there until the owner subscribes. When a shared allowance is used up, the message explains when it resets.

On a read-only garden you can still ask questions, subject to the applicable allowance, but the assistant cannot add or edit garden records. Photo storage is separate from AI usage and is counted against the garden owner’s account.

See pricing for current launch terms, prices, and allowances.

#If you would rather not use it

You can use garden records, sharing, techniques, analytics, and photos without opening the assistant.