Last Updated on September 13, 2026
AI Garden Assistant vs a Rule-Based Planner: Why I Retired the Chatbot
Short version: for two seasons this page hosted an AI gardening chatbot. I took it down. A chatbot is good at explaining things and bad at the two things a garden plan needs to get right: dates and numbers. The planner I use now, Plan My Garden, is not a chatbot. It runs on fixed rules: your frost dates from your zip code, planting windows counted in weeks from those dates, and spacing from the square foot chart. Ask it the same question twice and you get the same answer.
What the chatbot got wrong
I built the assistant on top of a general language model with my own square foot and organic material layered in. People asked it good questions, and it gave confident answers. The trouble showed up when I checked those answers against my own notes.
- Frost dates. Ask for a last frost date and a chatbot guesses from the zone name, or from a city hundreds of miles away. My last frost here in New Hampshire is mid May; the bot offered April dates more than once. Every planting date downstream of that guess is wrong.
- Planting weeks that drift. Ask when to start peppers and you get eight weeks before frost one day and ten the next. Real timing rules do not move. Peppers start six weeks before the last frost and go out two to three weeks after it, every year.
- Spacing. Chatbots quote seed-packet row spacing, which is written for tractors and paths. In a raised bed you plant on a grid: sixteen carrots to a square, nine beets, four lettuce, one pepper. The square foot chart has not changed in years and does not need to.
- No memory of your garden. It did not know your beds, your crops or what you planted last week, so every answer started from zero.
- Invented sources. When pressed for where a number came from, it produced references that did not exist.
What a rule-based planner does instead
Plan My Garden does less than a chatbot and gets it right. There is no conversation, just inputs and a plan.
| Question | Chatbot | Plan My Garden |
|---|---|---|
| When is my last frost? | A guess from the zone name | Looked up from your zip code (try it) |
| When do I start tomatoes? | Varies each time you ask | 5 to 3 weeks before your last frost, then out 2 to 3 weeks after it; the same rule every year |
| How many fit in my bed? | Row spacing from a seed packet | You draw the bed, it fills the squares using square foot spacing |
| What do I do this week? | Nothing unless you ask | Weekly guidance through the season, based on your dates |
| What does it cost? | Free, and worth it | Free plan with one layout and one planting plan; Pro is $59 a year for unlimited layouts, grow guides and PDF export |
The rules inside it are the ones I have used in my own beds for thirty years in New England, and the same ones on this site: the seed starting calendar is the weeks version, and the charts and tools page collects the rest. The planner just does the arithmetic for your zip code so you do not have to.
Where I still use AI
I am not against the tools. I use them to draft, to summarize a long extension bulletin, and to remind me of the Latin name of a pest. What I do not do is let one pick a planting date or a spacing number, because those are the decisions a garden cannot recover from. Get a bed of tomatoes out two weeks early in a cold spring and the season is over before it starts.
If you came here for the chatbot
It was retired in September 2026. The questions people asked it most were the same handful, and each one now has a better page: how many spinach plants fit in a square foot, how to start an organic vegetable garden, how to use soil blocks, and when to start seeds for your frost date.
Quick questions
Is an AI gardening assistant accurate?
For explanations, usually. For frost dates, planting weeks and spacing, not reliably. It guesses, and the guess changes between sessions.
What is a rule-based garden planner?
Software that applies fixed rules to your inputs: your zip code sets the frost dates, each crop has a planting window in weeks from that date, and spacing follows the square foot chart. The same inputs always give the same plan.
Is Plan My Garden free?
Yes. The free plan includes one garden layout and one planting plan. Pro is $59 a year and adds unlimited layouts, per-crop grow guides and PDF export, with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Plan the whole bed, without the guessing
Enter your zip code, draw your beds, pick your crops, and Plan My Garden lays out the squares and gives you the dates. Free to start.
