I Built an AI Gardening App That Tells Me to Put the Laptop Down

Description and use

Garden Trials lets gardeners observe, experiment, and track evidence for plant care decisions, running entirely locally without cloud services.

Problem

Gardeners often lack a structured way to observe, experiment, and track evidence for plant care decisions while staying close to the plants.

Outcome

The app enables gardeners to systematically observe, experiment, and track evidence for plant care decisions without leaving the garden or relying on cloud services.

Workflow

• Write a note about a plant and the day you saw it.
• The app reads the note with Gemma and asks you to check one specific thing on the plant.
• You observe and record the result before the app suggests a change from a fixed menu.
• You optionally apply one change and record counts and photos.
• The app generates a table, chart, verdict, evidence level (0‑3), and a plain next step.

Evidence

Garden Trials is a small app that runs entirely on your own computer.

Source

The stack is small on purpose: Streamlit, one JSON file, and gemma3:1b running locally through Ollama.

Source

The app asks me to check one specific thing on the plant. Until I write down what I found, it will not suggest anything.

Source

It talks to me before and after, and in the middle it asks me to put the laptop down and go and look.

Source