Planter – Garden Planner - Interview with the developer of a fantastic app

Did you have any prior development or coding experience?

Planter was my final project while learning Java and Android development through Udacity's Android Developer Nanodegree. Prior to becoming a mobile app developer, I was a mechanical engineer. Besides an introductory computer science course, I didn't have much coding experience. I wanted to make an android app, just for fun, so I started taking online courses.

Pretty soon I was hooked and decided I wanted to switch careers, so I spent most of my nights and weekends learning to code for nearly a year.

What was the most challenging aspect of developing mobile app?

The drag-and-drop interface was definitely the most challenging aspect of Planter. At first I used a standard dialog to show the list of plants that could be dragged into the garden. This caused a lot of problems, and I won't bore you with the details, but eventually I had to "fake" a dialog to make it work.

_Planter

Planter is a small, 3-person company devoted to helping veggie gardeners learn, have fun, and get bountiful harvests.

Name a few of your favorite apps and reason you love them.

When I was first developing Planter, Pocket Casts, the podcast app, was a big inspiration for me. The app excelled at having a ton of features in a simple and modern user interface. The developers were also very active in the community.

Action Launcher, a home screen app, is also amongst my favorite apps. One of the reasons I love Android is the ability to customize pretty much everything, and Action Launcher lets me do that with the home screen. Another plus is that it's written by an independent developer like myself, Chris Lacy.

How long have you been working on this app?

Just over 5 years now.

What need of the user did you have in mind when developing this app?

I created Planter because I needed an app like this for myself. I love to garden, but planning my veggie garden each year was a chore and confusing. It was a puzzle just figuring out the correct plant spacing, not to mention which plants were compatible with each other. I knew there had to be a better way, but I couldn't find an app to do what I wanted. So that's when I had the idea to make Planter!

In what way do you think your app is better than similar apps on the market? Please describe in detail what innovation you think you bring and what you are proud of in your app.

I'm really proud of how simple and intuitive Planter is. Simply drag and drop plants into your garden plot, and Planter will tell you the correct spacing and if any adjacent plants are "companion" or "combative" plants.

The calendar view tells you exactly when to plant it, no matter where you live in the world. Veggie gardening doesn't need to be complicated, and I'm glad that Planter helps gardeners spend less time planning their gardens and more time digging in the garden.

What are your future plans and expected features of the coming new versions of this app?

We've got big plans for the future! After our cross-platform re-release in 2021, the app has been growing like a giant bean stalk . Thanks to that growth, I can now focus on Planter full-time and have even hired extra help!

For starters, we're working through our top feature requests [https://planter.garden/requests] including planting notifications, so gardeners will be notified exactly when they can start sowing those corn kernels or cucumber seeds. We're also adding more and more content to our "Growing Guide" [https://blog.planter.garden/] to capture all the info that can't be found in a plant detail page.

Assuming new users of your app are reading this page. What do you want to ask them to do (contact you about X, Share the app, etc.)?

Whether you're a beginner gardener or a master gardener, Planter can help you with your veggie garden. Just download the app and get growing!