How do I follow my weekly garden tasks?

Your MyGrowPal dashboard is designed to act as your digital head gardener. Instead of showing you a generic, rigid list of instructions, the tasks dynamically shift to fit your location and the current weather.

Understanding your tasks:

• Sow Tasks: Prompts you when it's time to start seeds indoors, in a greenhouse, or directly in the soil. These windows shift based on spring temperatures.
• Plant/Harden Off: Warns you when it's time to transition young plants outside.
• Protect Tasks: Activates automatically when our weather feed detects a late-season frost warning for your postcode.
• Harvest Tasks: Estimates when your previously logged crops should be ready for picking.

How to complete tasks:

Tap a task card on your dashboard to see detail guides. Once you've finished the job, tap the circular checkbox to mark it complete. Completing a task will automatically prompt you to log seeds or log planting locations in your beds, keeping your digital garden in sync with your real one.

How do I turn on weather and frost alerts?

Never get caught off-guard by a sudden late spring frost. MyGrowPal can send push notifications straight to your phone when conditions change.

How to enable notifications:

1. Open the MyGrowPal app and tap the Settings (cog icon) in the top right corner.
2. Scroll down and tap Notifications Settings.
3. Toggle on Frost Risk Alerts and Sowing Reminders.
4. If prompted by your device, tap Allow to grant system notification permissions.

Scanning seed packets with your camera

MyGrowPal's core feature is the digital seed library. Instead of typing in all the details for dozens of packets, you can scan the packet's label using your phone's camera.

Step-by-step scanning guide:

1. Tap the green "+" (Add) button on the app navigation bar and select Scan Seed Packet.
2. Align the front or back of the seed packet within the camera frame. Make sure the text is clear, well-lit, and readable.
3. Tap the shutter button. The built-in AI will analyze the text, title, brand, and instructions.
4. Review the scanned information (variety name, sowing instructions, dates). You can edit any field if the scanner made an error.
5. Tap Save to Library.

Adding a seed variety manually

If you are using home-saved seeds, seeds swap packets, or the scanner is struggling with a damaged package, you can input your seeds manually.

To add seeds manually:

1. Tap the "+" (Add) button on the bottom navigation bar.
2. Select Add Seed Manually.
3. Type in the Crop Type (e.g. Tomato, Spinach) and the specific Variety (e.g. Moneymaker, Bloomsdale).
4. (Optional) Input the sowing windows (indoor and outdoor months), planting depth, and harvest timeline.
5. Select a packet icon color or upload a custom photo to represent the seeds in your library.
6. Tap Create Seed Packet.

Once created, your manual seed packet behaves exactly like a scanned packet, showing up in your sowing schedules when the season is right.

How are seeds organized in the library?

As your collection grows, MyGrowPal automatically groups and filters your seeds so you can find what you need quickly.

Automatic groupings:

• Sowable Now: Seeds that are currently inside their sowing window based on your postcode climate.
• Active: Crops that you currently have growing in pots, seed trays, or garden beds.
• Out of Season: Seeds whose sowing window has passed or hasn't started yet.
• Archived/Empty: Packets you have marked as fully used or expired.

Sorting & filtering:

Inside the Seed Library tab, tap the filter icon in the top right to filter by category (Vegetables, Herbs, Flowers, Fruit) or sort alphabetically, by sowing date, or by expiry date.

Creating and naming your garden beds

The **Plot Planner** tab lets you match your real-world gardening beds, allotments, or windowsills to a digital layout. This makes it easy to track what is growing where.

How to create a bed:

1. Navigate to the Plots tab on the bottom menu.
2. Tap Add Bed / Plot.
3. Choose a layout type: Raised Bed, In-ground Plot, Greenhouse, or Container/Pots.
4. Specify dimensions (e.g., 4ft x 8ft or grid counts) to help position plants.
5. Give your bed a clear name (e.g. "Bed 1 - Main Potatoes" or "Greenhouse Shelf A") and tap Save Bed.

Once your bed is saved, you can tap it to drag-and-drop crops from your Seed Library into specific locations on the grid layout.

Tracking sun exposure on your plots

Not all areas of a garden get the same amount of light. Placing plants in their ideal light condition is crucial for a big harvest.

Assigning sun ratings:

When editing or creating a bed, you can assign it one of the following light levels:

• Full Sun: 6+ hours of direct sunlight per day. Ideal for tomatoes, peppers, squashes, and Mediterranean herbs.
• Partial Shade: 3-6 hours of sunlight, or dappled light throughout the day. Perfect for salad greens, spinach, carrots, and brassicas.
• Full Shade: Less than 3 hours of direct sunlight. Suited for leafy greens, mint, chives, and wild garlic.

Once set, when you attempt to plan a crop in that bed, MyGrowPal will cross-reference the seed packet's light requirements and show a warning badge if the plant might struggle (e.g. planning sun-loving Chillies in a Full Shade container).

Understanding the crop rotation warnings

Planting the same crop family in the same soil year after year can deplete specific nutrients and allow soil-borne pests or diseases to build up. MyGrowPal helps you avoid this with automatic warnings.

How crop rotation warnings work:

When you attempt to log a planting event in a bed, the app scans your historical records for that specific bed. If a crop of the same family was grown there during the last season, a warning icon will appear with a detailed message:

The Crop Families we track:

• Solanaceae (Nightshades): Tomatoes, peppers, aubergines, potatoes.
• Brassicaceae (Crucifers): Cabbage, kale, broccoli, radish, rocket.
• Fabaceae (Legumes): Peas, broad beans, runner beans, French beans.
• Alliaceae (Alliums): Onions, garlic, leeks, shallots.
• Cucurbitaceae (Cucurbits): Cucumber, courgette, squash, pumpkin.

Diagnosing sick plants with the AI Assistant

If one of your plants has yellowing leaves, weird spots, or stunted growth, you can use the AI Assistant to diagnose the problem.

How to run a plant health check:

1. Tap the AI Assistant (stethoscope icon) on the home dashboard or navigate to the AI Tab.
2. Select Diagnose Sick Plant.
3. Take a close-up photo of the affected leaves or stems. Make sure it's in focus and well-lit.
4. Select the crop type from the dropdown list.
5. Tap Analyze Plant Health.

Reading the analysis:

The AI will return three key insights:

• Primary Suspect: The most likely disease, pest, or nutrient deficiency (e.g. Powdery Mildew, Aphids, Nitrogen deficiency).
• Confidence Score: How confident the AI is in the diagnosis.
• Action Plan: Simple, organic, and chemical treatment steps you can take, plus how to prevent the problem from spreading.

Why isn't my seed packet scanning correctly?

Sometimes the AI scanner fails to identify a seed packet or extracts wrong text. This is usually caused by lighting or packet condition.

Tips for a better scan:

• Avoid glare: Glossy plastic packets reflect light and block text. Try changing your angle or shading the packet.
• Flatten the packet: If the packet is crinkled or folded, the text becomes distorted. Smooth it down before taking the photo.
• Camera focus: Hold your phone steady and tap your screen to force focus on the text before snapping the photo.
• Good lighting: Shadowy environments make text unreadable. Scan in a bright room or near a window.

If a packet consistently fails to scan, you can always use the manual entry form to log the details instead.

What features are included in Premium?

MyGrowPal is free to download and use for basic garden tracking. To help fund ongoing development, we offer a **Premium Tier** for growers looking for advanced planning tools.

Comparison of features:

Pricing is £3.99 per month, or £24.99 per year (saving 45%). You can subscribe directly in the app via your Google Play account.

Restoring an existing purchase

If you've reinstalled the app, signed in on a new device, or upgraded your phone, you might find that your premium features are locked. You can easily restore your purchase.

How to restore Premium:

1. Open MyGrowPal and tap the Settings (cog icon).
2. Tap Account & Subscription.
3. Scroll to the bottom of the page and tap Restore Purchases.
4. The app will query Google Play to check your active subscriptions. Once verified, Premium features will unlock instantly.

Note: You must be logged into the same Google Play account on your phone that you used to purchase the subscription originally.

How do I delete my MyGrowPal account?

We're sorry to see you go! If you decide to close your account, we make it simple to wipe your data entirely.

To delete your account in the app:

1. Open MyGrowPal and go to Settings (cog icon).
2. Tap Account & Security.
3. Tap the red Delete Account button.
4. Type your password to confirm, and tap Permanently Delete.

To delete your account online:

If you have already uninstalled the app, you can request account deletion online by visiting our Account Deletion Page. Wiping your account deletes your email address, postcode, seed library, and all journal/bed history from our database within 48 hours. This action cannot be undone.