The Easy Way to Get to Know the Plants in Your Yard and More
This post has been compensated but all opinions shared are my own, as always!
Have you ever been on a walk and seen a plant or flower that intrigued you? If you have and wondered, "What's that plant?", there's an app to help you answer that question.
Do you love flowers and anything that blooms? Does a walk in the woods, around your yard, a hike, or a trip to the park leave you in awe of the beauty that surrounds you?
If you love gardening and want to learn more about the flowers, plants, and trees you grow OR if you want to inspire your kids to know more about nature PlantSnap is a wonderful app that will help you engage, learn, and teach.
I grew up with a love of gardening which I got from my father. He was raised on a farm and always earnestly enjoyed every aspect of gardening. From tilling the soil to planting seeds to watering and nurturing to finally seeing everything lush and in full bloom bearing fruit, or flowers, or vegetables, the entire process thrilled him and that all has the same effect on me.
I have a HUGE book of all things gardening and have used it as a reference since I was a teenager cultivating my first garden but a few years ago I stopped having the time to look through the book, reference, cross reference, and then compare pics in the book to plants I was seeing to verify what a plant was or wasn't.
Time....oh, so precious! BUT recently (last week) I was introduced to an app that does all of that for me. No more having to lug out my big book to find the info I'm looking for.
How To Use PlantSnap - What's That Plant?
Using the PlantSnap mobile app is simple. First, download it 😉 You can do that right here and then get ready to be amazed!
I took a walk around my yard snapping pictures of flowers whose identity I knew just to make sure PlantSnap and I were on the same page, then I let my wild side loose. I took pictures of a few weeds in my yard. To be very honest, I let weeds grow in certain areas if they're pretty. I used to dig everything up that didn't fit my garden plan but now, I leave certain areas to go to weed....again, if the weeds are pretty! With that in mind, I snapped a few pics of weeds and learned what they were and if they served a purpose in my own corner of the world.
Some of you may know that I am a homeschooler and I only have one left still in school *sigh*. Today, we had a goals discussion about what our plans were for the year ahead. Hands-on is the way to go with this particular son of mine. He enjoys science and nature and we're going to be integrating PlantSnap into this year's studies.
PlantSnap is so easy to use. You can take a photo of a plant or choose a photo from your gallery.
You want to get as clear a shot as possible, and crop tightly so that PlantSnap can assess the plant in question without any distractions.
Once it's done that, the app gives you options with their assessment of what the plant in question is. You can either accept or decline.
If you accept all is good and you can then choose to be taken to a link with more specifics about the plant in question. That's what I did with the weed above and now I know what it is!
I also did that with one of the houseplants I keep outside. I knew what the "slang" name for it was but I wanted to know more details.
There are over 315,000 plants in the plant database so far with at least 71 new plant species being recognized every month. PlantSnap currently recognizes 71,000 species of plants and trees which covers most plant species found in North American and Europe and, this is so amazing, Plant Database is on course to FULLY cover almost every known plant species on Earth by the end of 2017.
If you are an amateur botanist, a plant lover, gardener, or know someone who fits any of those descriptions this would be a wonderful app to have. We have already had so much fun with it and the beauty of the process, we're learning while having fun.
P.S. I wish I had had this years ago when I was covered almost head to toe with poison ivy. I could have avoided so much misery!
Where would you use the PlantSnap app? We're thinking that a trip to our local conservatory may be in order. 🙂
What a great app! I definitely need to check it out.
I too which I had it for poison ivy, several years ago.... I had it mixed up with Virginia creeper for some reason. I had the worst case of poison ivy ever.
Oh my goodness....I am so sorry about your poison ivy....it is absolutely horrible. Well, hopefully, we'll both be safe from it going forward!
I know exactly how I'm going to use this - I'm about to landscape my yard and I see things on walks that I want. I never have any idea what it is so this will help me!!
I'll bet your yard will turn out beautifully! I've been following some of your new home progress and it looks amazing. <3
This is so interesting. I have no idea what most of the plants in my yard are. I need to do this!