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

Description and use

Garden Trials uses a local Gemma3:1b model to guide observations and experiments in gardening, keeping all data on the local machine without cloud dependence.

Problem

Gardeners who are still learning to read their plants need a tool that encourages observation, simple experiments, and evidence tracking without replacing hands‑on experience.

Outcome

Garden Trials enables gardeners to systematically test hypotheses about plant care, track evidence, and make data‑driven decisions while keeping all data local and free of cloud dependencies.

Workflow

• Write a note about a plant and the day you saw it.
• The app reads the note with Gemma and suggests one thing to check.
• You observe the plant and record the result.
• You optionally choose one change from a small menu or leave the plant unchanged.
• You count and take a photo, then view the last photo for angle consistency.
• The app displays 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

If a number from my note is missing in Gemma's reading, the reading is rejected and my exact words are kept.

Source