Plan Your First Garden With GrowPlanner

Follow along as we plan a simple beginner's vegetable garden. In this guide, we'll set up three popular crops and show you exactly how GrowPlanner helps you succeed.

🍅 Tomatoes

🥬 Lettuce

🌿 Basil

Set Up Your Growing Zone

Tell GrowPlanner about your climate so it can personalize your planting schedule

Configure Your Location

When you first open GrowPlanner, you'll go through a quick setup process. The most important step is selecting your USDA hardiness zone and frost dates.

For this example, let's say we're gardening in Zone 7a with:

Last spring frost: April 15
First fall frost: October 15

This gives us about a 6-month growing season - perfect for tomatoes, lettuce, and basil!

Tip:

Don't know your zone? Search "[your city] USDA hardiness zone" or check the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map.

Browse the Plant Catalog

Explore what you can grow and see which plants work best for your zone

Find Your Plants

Head to the Plants tab to browse over 50 vegetables and herbs. Each plant shows key information at a glance:

Days to maturity
Sunlight requirements
Difficulty level for your zone
Whether it's frost-tolerant

For our beginner garden, we'll select:

Tomatoes - A garden classic, great for beginners
Lettuce - Fast-growing and forgiving
Basil - Perfect companion for tomatoes

Tip:

Start small! It's better to succeed with 3 plants than struggle with 10. You can always add more next season.

Create Your First Batch: Tomatoes

Let's start seeds indoors for a head start on the growing season

Select a Growing Method

Tap on Tomatoes, then tap "Add Batch". You'll see different growing methods:

Start Seeds Indoors - Begin 6-8 weeks before transplanting
Buy Transplants - Skip the seedling phase
Direct Seed - Plant seeds directly outside

We'll choose "Start Seeds Indoors" for the best results. GrowPlanner automatically calculates:

Seed starting date: February 18
Transplant date: May 1 (after frost danger)
Expected harvest: Mid-July onwards

Tip:

Notice the green "Safe" indicator? That means your planting date is within the recommended window for your zone.

Add Quick-Growing Lettuce

Direct seed lettuce for an early harvest

Direct Seeding Outdoors

Lettuce is frost-tolerant, so we can plant it earlier! Select Lettuce and choose "Direct Seed" as the growing method.

GrowPlanner shows the planting window starts in early spring:

Planting date: March 15
Days to harvest: 45-60 days
First harvest: Early May

Since lettuce matures quickly, you can plant multiple batches throughout the season for continuous harvests!

Tip:

Lettuce prefers cooler weather. Plant early in spring and again in late summer for fall harvests.

Complete the Trio: Basil

Buy transplants for easy, instant herbs

Starting with Transplants

For basil, let's try the "Buy Transplants" method. This is perfect when you want instant gratification or missed the seed-starting window.

Simply pick up basil seedlings from your local nursery after the last frost:

Transplant date: May 1
First harvest: 3-4 weeks after planting
Harvest continues: All summer long

Basil and tomatoes are companion plants - they grow great together and taste amazing in the same dishes!

Tip:

Pinch basil flowers as they appear to encourage bushier growth and more leaves.

Track Your Progress

Your dashboard shows everything at a glance

Your Garden Dashboard

Back on the home screen, you'll see all your batches with their upcoming tasks. The app shows:

Next task for each batch
Days until the task is due
Batch age (how long since you started)

Tap any batch to see all its tasks, mark them complete, and add notes about your progress.

Enable notifications to get reminded at your preferred time each day about what needs attention!

Tip:

Check your garden dashboard each morning with your coffee. It only takes a minute to see what's on today's agenda.

Your Garden Timeline

Here's what our example garden looks like over the season

🌱

Start Tomato Seeds Indoors

February 18

Plant seeds in seed-starting mix. Keep warm and moist until germination.

🥬

Direct Seed Lettuce

March 15

Sow lettuce seeds directly in the garden. Thin seedlings as they grow.

🍅

Transplant Tomatoes & Plant Basil

May 1

Move tomato seedlings outside. Buy and plant basil transplants.

🥗

First Lettuce Harvest

Early May

Start harvesting outer lettuce leaves. Plant more for succession!

🌿

Basil Ready for Harvest

Late May

Begin harvesting basil leaves. Regular picking encourages growth.

🍅

First Tomatoes Ripen

Mid-July

Enjoy your first homegrown tomatoes! Harvest continues through fall.

What You'll Harvest

From just three plants, here's what your beginner garden can produce

🍅

Tomatoes

20-30 lbs per plant over the season. Fresh salads, sauces, and more!

🥬

Lettuce

Continuous harvests for months. Fresh salads all season long.

🌿

Basil

Endless fresh herbs. Make pesto, garnish dishes, or dry for later.

Plan Your First Garden With GrowPlanner

Set Up Your Growing Zone

Configure Your Location

Browse the Plant Catalog

Find Your Plants

Create Your First Batch: Tomatoes

Select a Growing Method

Add Quick-Growing Lettuce

Direct Seeding Outdoors

Complete the Trio: Basil

Starting with Transplants

Track Your Progress

Your Garden Dashboard

Your Garden Timeline

Start Tomato Seeds Indoors

Direct Seed Lettuce

Transplant Tomatoes & Plant Basil

First Lettuce Harvest

Basil Ready for Harvest

First Tomatoes Ripen

What You'll Harvest

Tomatoes

Lettuce

Basil

Ready to Start Your Garden?