In short
- Notifications warn when frost could hurt your plants, say when to check the soil or sow, and bring invitations.
- In the iPhone or Android app, open Settings and tap “Turn on notifications”.
- On the web on an iPhone, add the app to the home screen first: Safari requires it.
- Several things due at once arrive as one notification, never a flood.
- Reminders are part of what the app works out for you; the first growing season is free.
What you'll get
- Frost. A warning when frost could hurt what you've planted, in time to cover it or pick it.
- Check the soil. When the weather and your recent logs suggest the soil is drying out, a nudge to go and check — not an order to water.
- The driest bed, by name. If you have set up growing areas, the nudge names the driest one, so you know which bed to walk to.
- Watered, from the notification. Press and hold a nudge to check the soil, then tap Watered to log a watering without opening the app.
- Sow, plant out and harvest. Timed to your garden's own location with the same climate data as the garden's Todo tab, not a generic calendar.
- One notification, not a flood. Things due around the same time arrive together, for example "Sow carrots, plant out tomatoes, water your garden, and 2 more".
- Still one, however many beds or gardens. Three dry beds are one nudge, and work due in several gardens is one notification that counts it all.
- Invitations. When someone invites you into their garden.
These reminders come from what the app works out for you, which is the part that is paid for. Your first growing season of it is free. After that, reminders pause until you subscribe, and everything you have recorded stays where it is.
Invitations to gardens somebody shares with you always come through, subscription or not. About Gardener's Almanac sets out what is free and what is not.
Before you start
In the iPhone app, there is nothing to prepare.
In the Android app, your phone needs Google Play services, which almost every Android phone has.
On the web, add the app to your home screen first. On an iPhone this is required: Safari only allows web notifications for a page added to the home screen and opened from there. Once added, the app opens full-screen like any other app, with no address bar.
Turn them on in the iPhone app
- Open Settings.
- Under Notifications, tap Turn on notifications.
- Tap Allow when your iPhone asks whether Gardener's Almanac may send you notifications.
If you once tapped Don't Allow, your iPhone will not ask again. Settings then shows Open notification settings, which takes you to the switch in your iPhone's Settings app.
Turn them on in the Android app
- Open Settings.
- Under Notifications, tap Turn on notifications.
- Tap Allow when your phone asks whether Gardener's Almanac may send you notifications.
If you have tapped Don't allow twice, your phone will not ask again. Settings then shows Open notification settings, which takes you to the app's notifications in your phone's settings.
Once they are on, each kind has a row of its own under Notifications: Frost warnings, Watering, Todo, Invitations and Other reminders. Each row says whether that kind is on. Tap one to choose its sound and how it shows on the lock screen, or to turn just that kind off.
Add the web app to your home screen
On an iPhone, in Safari:
- Open the app in Safari.
- Tap the Share icon, the square with an arrow pointing up.
- Scroll down and tap Add to Home Screen.
- From now on, open the app from its icon on the home screen, not from a Safari tab.
On Android, in Chrome:
- Open the app in Chrome.
- Tap the ⋮ menu.
- Tap Install app, or Add to Home screen.
- Open the app from its new icon.
Turn them on in the web app
- Open Settings in the app.
- Under Notifications, choose Enable push notifications.
- Allow the prompt your browser shows. It is the one-time question asking whether Gardener's Almanac may send you notifications.
You can turn notifications off again at any time: on the iPhone and the web in the same place, on Android from the rows under Notifications.
Why it works
A garden doesn't wait for you to remember it. The soil dries out on its own schedule, and the window for sowing carrots closes whether you noticed or not. Notifications tell you at the moment it matters, instead of leaving it to chance.
They are only as good as what the app knows about your garden. Weather alone gives a fair estimate, and every soil check and watering you log replaces the estimate with what really happened.
With growing areas, the estimate is kept for each area. Name the area you watered and that area is updated; a watering with no area named counts for all of them, which is usually right.
Efficient Watering shows how to read your soil before you decide. Getting Started covers what else is worth logging.