Greetings, homesteaders,
Six months ago, there was a post to this subreddit requesting recommendations for a home gardening app:
Many of the responses could be summarized as:
* I don't use an app, I use pencil and paper, it's faster and easier.
* I don't use an app, I use a spreadsheet, it's faster and easier.
* I don't use an app, I talk to folks in my area (supply store, neighbors, master gardeners)
* I don't use an app, the best teacher is personal experience.
For the past few years, I've been working with a small group of experienced home gardeners who feel pretty much the same way as these respondents: existing gardening apps aren't easier than pencil and paper or spreadsheets, and that a "single user", "single season" design severely limits their benefits.
So, we've been designing an app called GeoGardenClub that we would actually prefer over paper/pencil and spreadsheets. The design goals include: (a) make it easy to record and reflect on garden data for hundreds of plantings across multiple seasons, (b) allow multiple gardeners to collaboratively plan and manage multiple home gardens, and (c) assign each user to a "Chapter" based on their zip code so that they can see garden data from others in their immediate area, and share insights and observations with their neighbors.
We've implemented a beta version that we've tested with a small set of gardeners in Bellingham, WA this past year. Now we're embarking on some design improvements in preparation for next season. It's clear that members of this subreddit are brutally honest about their feelings toward technology in general and gardening apps in particular, and so would be a great community to get some feedback from.
If you'd like to get a sense for our app, you can do that by skimming our documentation. An overview starts here:
https://geogardenclub.com/docs/user-guide/overview
And the user guide starts here:
https://geogardenclub.com/docs/user-guide/overview
We greatly appreciate any thoughts you might have. Thanks in advance!
by philipmjohnson