Full disclosure… I was given this iPhone app by the developer to review. I will give it away to a lucky reader of this site… the details: I will pick at random from all the people who comment to this review. Your comment must say what feature of this app you think you will use most. I will pick the winner on Monday, Dec. 21st. A great Christmas present to yourself or a loved one who gardens!
With over 45 gardening apps for the iPhone, Master Gardener, is the first one that I find useful for a number of reasons. It is a portable garden plant tracker, to do list, garden planner and journal all in the palm of your hand so it goes where you go – into your garden, at home, to the gardening supply store or anywhere else – it is less bulky than a traditional paper journal.
At the bottom of the home screen are five icons which are both separate and related to each other.
The first one is “My Garden.” Here you can add or delete as many gardens as you have 
individual plants in those gardens. You can search the database of plants to add to your garden. If you have a large yard 
or acreage, you can divide things into multiple gardens with unique names. It is like a management system for all your gardens. In all the gardens, you can describe and express it down to the most smallest detail. Of each plant you add to your garden, there is a field to add quantity, purchase date, planting date, height, color and notes for more detailed descriptions.
The next icon is the “To Dos” for setting a list of things to do and dates related to the garden(s) that you select. Keep track of everything you need to do for each garden, noting the due date and the status of the garden.
It also has a “Journal” feature so you can write specific thoughts and feelings related to your selected garden (or life in general.)
The “My Favorites” icon lets you add and edit a list of favorite plants.
The “Find” icon is the most important of the features because it ties into “My Garden” and “My Favorite” icons. When adding plants to gardens or to favorites, the find a plant is used
searching the database of over 40,000 plants. If a plant isn’t in the database, the user can add it. The app also has a feature that will go to Wikipedia with a click and get more detailed information about that plant. You can add a pre-existing photo or take one in the garden of that plant and add it to the database.
As with most of the iPhone apps, it shrinks your record keeping and journals down to a hand held and portable size.
The only drawback I see is adding data. I am not going to handle my iPhone when I have been working in the garden since I don’t use gloves and my hands get real dirty and muddy sometimes. So my data entry would be limited to the times I have clean hands.
Overall for functionality, I would rate it a buy. Available in iTunes at the App Store for $3.99, click below to buy it.
Best iPhone apps at AppStoreHQ
Hydroponics Dictionary
{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
Love to garden when I’m out on the farm in Eddystone Canada, in our short growing season I was even able to grow some awesome habanero peppers.
Hey, what a great tool. Ascension records is what I would use it for. Another great find by Tom Alexander….
What a neat little App. I love my iPhone and use it all the time to take pics of plants I want to research when I’m out & about, or when I spot a plant combination I want to remember.
I’ve been waiting for some interesting Apps for gardeners, it’s about time!I think I could use this, so I’ll be checking it out!
Thanks for the tip Tom!
-Deidre
Sounds intriguing, though I think the only function I would really use would be the plant database. That said, it would be interesting to try out. I could be proven wrong.
This sounds terrific. I got an itouch for my birthday and have found lots of interesting apps, but this really sounds useful. The database would be very useful. The to do list could be quite helpful to remind me of tasks. And noting when I find combinations of plants I like could be very helpful as I browse the nursery.
Thanks for the tip.
Linda
I garden for a living, and I’d probably use the record-keeping abilities to help keep track of plants purchased, quantities, source, cost, etc. It’s tough to keep track of that kind of information for other people’s properties without investing a lot of unbillable time putting it into a database in the home office. The To Do list is another feature that would be useful for me. Because I have the same problem as the reviewer–I can only handle my phone minimally when my hands are dirty–what would be really great is the ability to enter information using voice recognition software. Am I asking too much?
Sounds like a very useful app, but I, too, would be reluctant to actually take it out into the garden … where it could easily get wet or dropped in the dirt.
Definitely the To Do list! Right now I write stuff down on a print calendar, and enter into iCal… but of course not everything goes in one place, no matter how organized I try to be. I’d love to give this a shot. Thanks for the giveaway.
Wow, this sounds very interesting. I’d use it to keep track of what is in my own garden, including the journaling and and also for what I find in gardens I photograph for others both as an adjunct to the photos (better to have access to the database in addition to just a photo of a plant tag with a photo of the plant for id’ing it later) and for future reference back. When I put the image info into the photo metadata back on my computer I can use this (with it’s wikipedia fuction) to add background info and other keywords that might not come right to my mind. Sounds like it could be a real timesaver.
What appeals most to me is the ability to define different gardens. I’m a professional gardener and I care for 5-10 gardens every season. At the end of each maintenance/planting session I do a walk through, making notes for what needs to be done on the next visit. I love the idea of being able to define individual gardens within the app, then record notes on each garden: add 5 Angelonia, bring more contractors garbage bags, pinch Mums and Montauk daisies… Also, the Wikipedia connection will let me show clients images of plants I’m suggesting. Just because I can visualize how something will look doesn’t mean the client can.
Interesting idea–I would use it for creating my shopping/wish lists and for that moment when I see an intriguing, but not well-labeled, plant for sale. This would have saved me from planting a Michelia figo in pride of place by my front door, only to watch it struggle because Zone 7 is far too cold for it–we shall see if survives this December.
Can the app be ported over to a Samsung Rogue? It would be nice to see apps available like this one beyond just iPhone users.
wow! this looks like something very useful.We have a small farm that grows veggies & fruit & a hydroponic greenhouse. Also corn for our chickens – The records you must keep can get a bit lengthy. I have been keeping up with this on paper and then transferring to a calender and so on and so forth…What a difference this could make
Ellen Zachos was the winner of the Master Gardener iPhone app. The way I did the drawing was I numbered each comment of a piece of paper, put them all in a hat, closed my eyes and picked a piece of paper. That was fun!
Thanks for the app, Tom. I’ve already loaded in several gardens (w/their to-do lists!) and the interface is easy and intuitive. Not a lot of indoor plants included in the plant lists (I have some indoor and greenhouse clients) but the rest works very well.
This app sounds great, just what I need to track all the plants in my hydro garden. All the info I need at my fingertips.