Anyone use Smart Gardener?

To clarify.... To enable the SFG features, you need to purchase it as a "Smart Add On" ($4.99). Smart Add Ons are mini apps that add functionality and content to your gardens. Herbs ($1.99) and Berries are also Smart Add Ons. If you are not happy, we will refund your purchase.

kristeer wrote:To clarify.... To enable the SFG features, you need to purchase it as a "Smart Add On" ($4.99). Smart Add Ons are mini apps that add functionality and content to your gardens. Herbs ($1.99) and Berries are also Smart Add Ons. If you are not happy, we will refund your purchase.

@Kristee

I plan to add them tomorrow as I like the site and can see how it helps many of us novice gardeners.

Perhaps for the more seasoned ones it is not that importand but I like it and am glad to hear that is workable for SFG.

Hey Floyd -- I just got the SFG module, the herbs, the berries, and the journal. Kristie was great. I did not have any of the credit cards she accepts, so I sent her an email to get an address. She gave me the address and turned those features on already and I just mailed her a check about 4:30 today! What other company would do that? That to do list is good to remind me to water, mulch, top-dress etc. Let us know how you like it .

I was impressed she emailed on a SUNDAY about my concerns got my attention to say the least!

Let me know if the $4.99 upgrade takes us to the spacings Mels suggests.

Thanks

Hey thanks guys for sharing your positive experiences and comments about the software
Sounds like great customer support

Yes you do get the 1 square per tomato and four for zucchini. I don't have my ANSFG book as I loaned it to my daughter, so I am not sure about winter squash. I think it is well worth the price. One thing I might run into is garden size, as I have about 4 acres, so lots of room for expansion. I know it will make 150' x 150', but will it save several gardens for one user?

Yes. You can have as many gardens as you would like!

All footprints for SFG should follow Mel's book exactly. If it doesn't - let us know!

Kristee
Founder, Smart Gardener

kristeer wrote:Yes. You can have as many gardens as you would like!

All footprints for SFG should follow Mel's book exactly. If it doesn't - let us know!

Kristee
Founder, Smart Gardener

I purchased both the SFG and herb app and will let you know how it works.

Kristee seems VERY concerned about making it work for SGFers and if it works it could help many gardeners.

Smart Gardener was my very first pit stop in the arranging of my garden and placement of all my choices. Kristee was extremely helpful with me as i am in Canada and at the time, it didn't recognize me for first and last frost dates or postal codes. I am only half hour from International Falls,so for now, that is where I am listed. I have basically no knowledge, (as most of you have guessed already....lol.) so for me personally this site was and is, extremely helpful. I did purchase a couple of the add on's as I wanted my first try to be as successful as it could possibly be with in reason.
My garden is there... http://www.smartgardener.com/gardens/28548-debbies-garden-emo-ontario/plan

It originally said 4 squares for tomatoes and cukes, but changed with some of the add on features. I kept them at 4 squares anyhow, and used the cattle panel cages in each of them. This is a first try for me, so I can gauge things for next year.

Kristee was extremely helpful with all my questions (and suggestions), and also very patient with my lack of knowledge. I was grateful for the time she personally took out of her day for me, just as I am to have you all here to walk me through my never ending questions.

good luck with the site!!

Debora Cadene wrote:Smart Gardener was my very first pit stop in the arranging of my garden and placement of all my choices. Kristee was extremely helpful with me as i am in Canada and at the time, it didn't recognize me for first and last frost dates or postal codes. I am only half hour from International Falls,so for now, that is where I am listed. I have basically no knowledge, (as most of you have guessed already....lol.) so for me personally this site was and is, extremely helpful. I did purchase a couple of the add on's as I wanted my first try to be as successful as it could possibly be with in reason.
My garden is there... http://www.smartgardener.com/gardens/28548-debbies-garden-emo-ontario/plan

It originally said 4 squares for tomatoes and cukes, but changed with some of the add on features. I kept them at 4 squares anyhow, and used the cattle panel cages in each of them. This is a first try for me, so I can gauge things for next year.

Kristee was extremely helpful with all my questions (and suggestions), and also very patient with my lack of knowledge. I was grateful for the time she personally took out of her day for me, just as I am to have you all here to walk me through my never ending questions.

good luck with the site!!

What impressed me was I wrote her on a Sunday about some of my concerns and she wrote me back that same day!!!!

I LOVE to hear about great customer service

Not only did I get a reply the same day, but when I wrote and told her I did not have any of the credit cards she takes, she wrote back that I could send a check. But she also asked what add-ons I wanted and she turned them on before I even wrote the check. I sent it out last Monday, and I hope she got it OK. It hasn't cleared my bank yet. I know mid-May7 was too late to plant cabbage in my area, but I planted one square anyway. Sure enough, it came up -- in fact two came up. I couldn't decide which one to thin out and the looked slightly different. One was the grey-ish green that I expected, but the other was a brighter yellow-green. Of course the darker one has bolted. Its twilight here now, but tomorrow I will take a picture of both of them together and see if anyone has any ideas about the difference in color.They are both from the same seed packet.

memart1 wrote:Not only did I get a reply the same day, but when I wrote and told her I did not have any of the credit cards she takes, she wrote back that I could send a check. But she also asked what add-ons I wanted and she turned them on before I even wrote the check. I sent it out last Monday, and I hope she got it OK. It hasn't cleared my bank yet. I know mid-May7 was too late to plant cabbage in my area, but I planted one square anyway. Sure enough, it came up -- in fact two came up. I couldn't decide which one to thin out and the looked slightly different. One was the grey-ish green that I expected, but the other was a brighter yellow-green. Of course the darker one has bolted. Its twilight here now, but tomorrow I will take a picture of both of them together and see if anyone has any ideas about the difference in color.They are both from the same seed packet.

Hey memart1...everytime I use it and use smart gardener it moves my plants around..anyway to keep that from happening?

When you have all of a variety placed where you want them, go to one of those squares. Put your cursor in the upper right hand corner of that square and you get a drop down menu. Click on lock variety and they will stay where you put them.

memart1 wrote:When you have all of a variety placed where you want them, go to one of those squares. Put your cursor in the upper right hand corner of that square and you get a drop down menu. Click on lock variety and they will stay where you put them.

Is it in the same area when you put the curser on the plant. I got a copy or delete? So is this is were I would find it?

My garden isn't perfect north/south and when I add plants it moves them around and I have to put them back....

On the green bar at the top, go to plan, Click on the bottom line to get to your garden. When you have all of your plant selections placed, click on the corner of any planted square for the drop down menu. You should see Copy, Delete, Lock Variety (or Unlock Variety), and Select Variety. If you click on Lock Variety you should see a red square around every square of that variety.

memart1 wrote:On the green bar at the top, go to plan, Click on the bottom line to get to your garden. When you have all of your plant selections placed, click on the corner of any planted square for the drop down menu. You should see Copy, Delete, Lock Variety (or Unlock Variety), and Select Variety. If you click on Lock Variety you should see a red square around every square of that variety.

Thanks..I followed your instructionsand everything is now locked in place. But I have one more question. I have two 4x8 gardens and placed on on the top and the other underneath it, but I have to cantantly fuss with the little red box on the right side to get both garden on the blue plot.

Did I set mt garden up wrong????

I only have one box, basically 2.5' x 26' with an extra triangle on one end. That fits on the one screen. I hope to add more squares next year, but haven't done so yet. You might want to ask Kristie for advise.

memart1 wrote:I only have one box, basically 2.5' x 26' with an extra triangle on one end. That fits on the one screen. I hope to add more squares next year, but haven't done so yet. You might want to ask Kristie for advise.

I might email her again about this question. I do understand you can add other gardens but I would have to configure that from scratch.

Perhaps i will fuss with it some more. Now after everything is planted do you get updates as to what to do?

Yes -- I got my first to-do e-mail today, and it mostly told me to top-dress most of my plants and harvest my radishes.

To answer two of your questions... we have had some bugs around your garden staying in one place when you leave it. I think we have finally solved the issue.

On your Smart Garden Plan - The box down in the lower corner with the red outline is for navigation - just like on Google Maps. Move the red outline around moves your view of the space around. This is also true of the horizontal zoom feature above the blue grid . There are three zoom levels so you can see more or less of your garden.

Hope that helps...

Kristee
Smart Gardener

Kristee - I see that you are in Geyserville - is that northern CA Geyserville?

GG - from NorCal