Walking your garden
Partly live · The finale cannot be shared as a picture.
A garden walk starts from the top of your garden screen. From 12 October 2026 it opens on a list of your spaces — beds, pots, wherever things are growing — grouped by garden zone, every one ticked, so most walks start with one tap on Start. Untick what you will skip. A small chip, Needs a look, ticks only the spaces whose tank has run low or dry or that your last report flagged; it shows only when that is a shorter list, and tapping it again ticks everything. Your walk goes down the list, top to bottom; under the button the screen says roughly what the walk will cost in credits. Then it takes you to one stop at a time, a bar across the top showing how far round you are. From 14 October 2026 a stop is one plant or tree, and a space with more than one plant also gets a last stop for the whole space. If there is an earlier picture of that stop, it is faded over your live camera so you can line up the same view; otherwise the live camera opens with the space drawn over it. Take the picture and tap Next, or tap Skip — a skipped space is reported as not read. Take as many pictures of a space as it needs, and a picture that failed to back up gets its own Try again. Once you tap through the last stop we read the whole walk, one stop at a time: today's pictures of that spot together with the last picture of it, its journal, what the calendar expected this week, and the weather — and the finish screen lists every stop and updates on its own as each one is read. What comes back is a one-screen letter: your walk's date, a title taken from the best thing it saw, one row for each space with a single word, and the jobs it found. It is saved to the walk, and we let you know it is ready, usually within the hour. Close the app mid-walk and reopening it picks up exactly where you left off.
What it is for
You are already walking round your garden looking at things. The walk is that, with a proper read of every spot at the end of it.
Open it from your garden screen. Since 12 October 2026 it opens on Select the spaces to photograph: your spaces grouped by garden zone, each with a tick box, its crop’s picture and its name, and a count on the right when it holds more than one plant. Every space starts ticked, so most walks begin with one tap on Start, which says how many stops there are. Untick what you will skip. The walk goes down the list, top to bottom. When it would genuinely be shorter, a small chip, Needs a look, ticks only the spaces whose tank has run low or dry, or that your last report flagged; tap it again and everything is ticked once more. Under the button, a short line says roughly what the walk will cost in credits. The cross at the top left takes you back to where you came from.
From 14 October 2026 each plant or tree in a space is its own stop, one after another. A space with more than one plant also gets one extra stop after its plants, for the whole space: its line says The whole space, for your journal, and that picture goes to the space, never onto one plant. A space with one plant is just that one stop. A space with no plants is one stop for the space.
Each stop shows a bar across the top, one segment a stop, with a count such as 3 of 8, then the plant’s or space’s name and one line. If there is an earlier picture of that stop, the line says Line up with last week’s photo and that picture is faded over your live camera when the stop opens. A slider makes it fainter or stronger, holding a finger on the screen hides it, and a link switches to your phone’s own camera. A plant that is the only one in its space also finds last week’s picture of the whole space, since that was how a one-plant pot used to be photographed; a plant in a space with several starts fresh. First time at a stop, the line says Photograph this one for a plant or tree, and the live camera still opens, with the bed drawn lightly over it, the plant ringed and a camera marking where to stand. From 14 October 2026 the live camera opens at every stop, not only ones with an earlier picture. If it will not open, the stop says why: Camera is off. Allow it in Settings. when you have said no to the camera, No live camera here. Tap the shutter. when your device cannot give one, Camera would not start. Tap the shutter. when it failed, or Tap the shutter for your phone’s camera. when you picked the phone camera yourself. The shutter then opens your phone’s own camera, and an earlier picture stands above it instead of over the live view. You photograph what you see — two or three pictures of a bed is fine — then tap Next. Tap Skip for a space with no picture and the report will say it was not read. The cross at the top left ends the walk: with pictures taken it is read, with none it takes you back to the list.
What you see while it works
Each picture is saved on your phone the moment you take it, and the button under the camera turns from Skip to Next. Nothing on the walk screen is a verdict. The looking happens once the walk is in. With no signal, or if we cannot be reached, the screen says Photos are saved here and they back up later. A picture that could not back up gets a line saying so and a Try again button.
After the last stop
Tap through the last stop and the finish screen lists every one of them, updating on its own as each is read: waiting, then reading, then read — or could not tell, or nobody looked, when a picture never made it up. We read the walk one stop at a time: today’s pictures of that spot together, the last picture of the same spot beside them, the stop’s journal, what the calendar expected to see this week, tonight’s weather and your frost dates. Each stop gets the same kind of answer asking about a photo gives one plant — what is visible, whether anything is wrong and how sure we are, what changed since last time. Once the report is ready, a button on the finish screen, See what changed, opens it as a short run of cards, and the cards end on the letter.
Then it comes back as a letter, saved to the walk. It is one screen: a cross to close it, Your walk and the date, a title taken from the best thing the walk saw, and a small line saying how many stops and which spaces. Under that is one row for each space, with its picture and one word or date, and a Jobs card with a box for each job. Ask Rafe and Done stay at the bottom; Done takes you to Today. It is on your journal under Your week, usually within the hour, and we let you know when it is there.
Each stop’s own page holds the rest. Tap a row to see what changed since your last walk of that spot, last time’s picture beside this one, and what would settle anything we could not tell. A first walk of a spot says there is nothing to compare yet.
Older walks is one small link under the jobs. It lists your earlier walks, each one opening its own letter. The morning after a walk, Today shows a small Since your walk card with a See what changed link that opens the cards. On one of your garden days (the days you picked under When do you garden?), once a week or more has passed since your last walk, the same card says Walk day, with how many places and about how long, and Start the walk › opens it.
On a stop’s page you see today’s picture and the one from your last walk of the same spot, side by side. Tap the pair and a divider lets you wipe between them. Swipe to move to the next stop, and the last card brings you back to the letter.
The cards before the letter
Since 14 October 2026 a finished walk opens as a deck of full-screen cards, each in its own color. The first is a cover: the week in one line, such as One job. Two quiet. One not read., three numbers (stops, read, jobs), and a small frost note only when the walk falls within 14 days either side of your garden’s first fall frost date. Then come the cards, in this order: Found, Celebrate, On track, Behind, Declining and Needs you, Frost first, Keep going, Couldn’t tell. A card appears only when the walk found something for it. The last card is the finale, and Skip to summary goes to the letter from any card.
A plant that needs you gets its own card: a headline saying what we saw, and the one job in a dark box. The calm plants share one card: one calm plant shows how many days since its last photo, and several show how many are calm. Celebrate is flowers opening, fruit setting or ripening, or a worry that has eased. On track says when the plant should be ready, and it only appears when we know the day it went in and its days to maturity. Behind means behind the calendar, never that something is wrong, and it asks for nothing but a look at the soil. Couldn’t tell names the photos that had nothing to compare.
When a plant has an earlier photo, its card shows then and now side by side, each with its date. A first photo shows one picture and says First photo., or Planted Oct 3. No earlier photo. when it went in after your last walk.
The finale is the keepsake: this walk’s pictures in a grid, a Not read tile with the reason for any stop that had no picture (No photo of the orange this walk, so it was not read.), the one job with Add to today, and the date of your next walk, taken from your garden days. Read the full letter opens the letter. It does not offer a share picture.
Tap the right half of a card to go on and the left half to go back. You can also swipe, use the arrow keys, or press Next. Nothing moves on by itself, and your phone’s Back button steps back a card.
Several of the same plant in one bed
A picture cannot tell three of the same tomato apart, and the walk does not pretend to. It is told where each plant stands in the bed as you face it from the front, so a finding can say the second from the left when today’s picture was taken from the same spot as last time. When it was not, the finding stays on the bed. A row of carrots or a clump of chives is never a which-one question.
The order a bed’s plants are named in
Since 3 September 2026 a card that names several plants in one bed names them in the order you set on that bed’s page — Edit — count from the left — so “Harvest: carrot, tomato, radish” reads the way you stand in front of the bed. Plants you have not placed keep the order they always had, after the placed ones. Nothing changes for a bed you never ordered.
Can we quote you?
On the Celebrate card, under its line, there is a small link: Can we quote you? It opens a sheet that asks for a sentence or two in your own words. Outcome is filled in from the card, and you can change it. Your words starts empty. Name to show, such as a first name and state, is optional. Then there is a box, GardenTrack can quote this on its website, and it starts unticked. Send stays off until you have written something and ticked the box. Not now closes the sheet.
Nothing is shared without the tick. We ask at most once a season on this card: the link goes once you have sent a quote or tapped Not now. It never appears on the other cards. On Your account, Your quotes lists what you sent, and Withdraw takes a quote off our website. You can send it without a signal, and it backs up later.
Common questions
- What are the cards at the end of a walk?
From 14 October 2026 the walk opens as a deck of full-screen cards: a cover, one card for each thing the walk found, and a last card that sums up the week. The cover says the week in one line, such as One job. Two quiet. One not read., with three numbers: stops, read and jobs. Then come the cards, in this order: Found, Celebrate, On track, Behind, Declining and Needs you, Frost first, Keep going, Couldn't tell. Tap the right half to go on, the left half to go back, or swipe. Skip to summary goes straight to the letter, and nothing moves on without you.
A plant that needs you gets its own card. It says what we saw, and the one job sits in a dark box under it. The calm plants share one card: one calm plant shows how many days since its last photo, and several show how many are calm. A card whose plant has an earlier photo shows then and now side by side, each with its date. A first photo shows one picture and says First photo., or Planted Oct 3. No earlier photo. when it went in after your last walk.
A card shows only what the walk found. Frost first is for a frost-tender plant, such as beans or cucumbers, that will not be ready before your first fall frost. It needs your garden's own frost dates, and a plant that handles frost never gets it. The cover shows a small frost note, Just past first frost or First frost due, only when the walk falls within 14 days either side of your garden's first fall frost date. On track needs a day it went in and a known days to maturity, so a plant with neither gets no ready date. Behind is the calendar's word and never says to pull anything. A walk with nothing for any card opens the letter.
A Found card means a photo showed plants growing where they were planned. It says so, as in Found where they were planned: 3 basil, and draws the bed with them ringed. Mark 3 planted confirms each one's spot, the same as It's here on the bed's page. Not yet moves on, and that walk does not ask again. It only offers plants whose planting day has come, and nothing is marked until you tap.
- Can I just walk the spots that need attention?
Yes — a chip above the list, Needs a look, does it. Tap it and only the spaces whose watering tank has run low or dry, or that your last report flagged, stay ticked. The chip says how many. Tap it again and everything is ticked once more. It only shows up when it is genuinely shorter than walking everything; a garden with nothing flagged gets no chip. Since 12 October 2026 it is a chip, where from 17 September it was a second button.
- Can I walk to one particular plant rather than a whole bed?
Not from the list any more — since 12 October 2026 the list is spaces, one row each. A space with more than one plant shows how many on the right. A pot with exactly one plant in it is that plant: its picture goes on the plant, and it is read with that plant's own journal.
A picture of a whole bed is read with everything growing in the bed. A finding that belongs to one kind of plant is filed against it; one that could be any of several of the same kind stays on the bed rather than being guessed at.
- How many photos can one walk have?
As many as your spots need — from 8 September 2026 there is no cap. Two or three of a bed with several kinds of plants in it is normal. The old limit of ten was a sizing guess, and it made a large garden into a walk that stopped halfway.
What bounds a walk is credit. While you are picking your route the screen says roughly what the walk will cost — one credit a picture, two for the report — and what is taken off afterwards is the measured cost of the looks, never the estimate. If your account has little room left to keep photos, the top of the screen says the real number before you start.
- What happens to a picture while I am out there?
It is saved on your phone and backed up — and the screen says nothing more. With no signal, the screen says No signal. Photos are saved here. and they back up when you have signal. If a picture could not back up, a line says so with a Try again button. There is no verdict on the walk screen any more.
The looking happens once the walk is in, because reading one stop properly means seeing today's pictures of it together, next to the last picture of the same spot, with its journal and the week's weather in front of us — none of which a quick glance at a lone picture had. Until 8 September 2026 each picture was glanced at on its own as it landed; that glance could not compare against the earlier picture, did not know what the calendar expected, and had no word for a pest.
- What do I get at the end of a walk?
A letter from your garden, saved to the walk, and a nudge when it is ready — from 17 September 2026. Tap through the last stop and we start reading, one stop at a time; the letter is usually there within the hour, on your journal under Your week, and it is the same on every phone you sign into.
It fits on one screen. At the top is Your walk and the date, then a title from the best thing the walk saw, such as Fruit has set, and a small line with how many stops and which spaces. Under that is one row for each space, with its picture and a single word or date: Flowering, Ready Oct 22–Nov 1, Behind, Frost first, Holding or Couldn't tell. When more than three stops are Holding, they fold into one row. Below the rows is a Jobs card, then Older walks, and Ask Rafe and Done stay at the bottom. The cross at the top left takes you back to where you opened it.
The detail is one tap away. Tap a row to see that stop: this walk's picture beside last time's, what changed since, and what would settle anything we could not tell. A stop with no picture has no detail to open. The last card is the walk's finale: this walk's pictures, why any stop was not read, the one job with Add to today, and the date of your next walk.
⚠ A stop we could not tell is never shown as fine. It says Couldn't tell. Silence would read as "fine", and we would rather show you the gap than invent reassurance about it.
- Can I tick a job off in the letter?
Yes, from 12 October 2026. A job in the letter's Jobs card, such as Water it deeply this week, has a box beside it. Tick it and the job is done: it shows on Today under Done today, and the journal records it. Untick it and it is open again. A job you already added with Add to today is the same job, so ticking it finishes that one rather than making a second. Add to today stays on the stop's own page, for a job you want to do later. A ticked job stays ticked when you close the app and come back.
- Does it diagnose now?
It looks properly, yes. Each stop is read the way asking about a photo reads one plant — what is visible, whether anything is wrong and how sure we are, what else it could be, what would settle it, and what to do, timing only. It compares today's pictures with the last picture of the same spot and says better, worse, no real change or that the two could not be compared, and it says why.
It still refuses when it cannot tell, and nothing wrong is the commonest answer and a real one. If you want to press on one plant, asking about that photo directly is still there.
- I have three of the same tomato in one bed. Can it tell which one it is looking at?
Not by looking, and it does not pretend to. Three of the same plant look like three of the same plant this week and next. What a picture does carry is where things stand, so the walk is told the order of the plants in the bed as you face it from the front, and a finding may say the second from the left — but only when today's picture was taken from the same spot as last time.
Otherwise the finding stays on the bed — something on one of the tomatoes in Back bed — which is a true sentence. Tapping which one it was is coming. Different kinds of plant in one bed are told apart fine, and a row of carrots or a clump of chives is never a which-one question.
- What order does the walk go in?
The order of the list, top to bottom. Spaces are grouped by garden zone, the zones in the order your garden keeps them, and any space in no zone comes last. The stop you are at is named at the top of the screen, with a bar and a count such as 3 of 8, so you are never hunting for where you are while holding a phone.
You do not have to include everything. Every space starts ticked; untick the ones you will not look at today. Before 12 October 2026 you tapped spaces in the order you would reach them, and the numbers followed your taps. That is gone — the list is the route now.
- Where do I start a garden walk?
Two places, and either one does the same thing.
At the top of your garden screen, above your beds — a purple button reading Walk your garden. It is purple where the others are orange on purpose: orange is for doing something to a bed, and a walk is somewhere you go.
Or behind the + in the bottom bar, above the list of plants. That one is there for a reason rather than for symmetry: a walk is logging. You are going outside to record what you see, and the + is where your hand already goes to record something.
Neither appears until you have a plant. A walk photographs your plants and writes what it finds into their records, so with an empty garden there is nothing for it to do.
- How many garden walks do I get?
On GardenTrack Free, 1 garden walk, once, with any number of stops. It's counted from the day you make your account and never refills. On a paid plan, walks come out of your weekly credits, as many as they cover.
On a paid plan, while you are picking your route the screen says roughly what the walk will cost in credits, and what is taken off afterwards is the measured cost of the looks rather than the estimate.
⚠ That estimate went up on 8 September 2026, and nothing about the price changed. It was quoting under what a walk actually costs — a four-photograph walk was estimated at six credits and charged eight. The estimate is what was wrong, not the charge. It now quotes the dearer of the two ways we can read a walk, so a walk always costs the same or less than the number you were shown, never more. Bigger walks are read a cheaper way, which is why most walks come in under.
- What if I lose signal halfway through?
Keep walking. Every photo is saved on your phone the moment you take it and backs up when you have signal again — the screen says so rather than pretending something failed. The walk is read once the last picture is in.
You do not have to leave the app open or remember to come back. And if your phone dies mid-walk, opening the screen again picks up the same walk rather than starting a new one.
- The report says a stop was not looked at. What does that mean?
Exactly what it says: the pictures are saved, and that stop did not get a look — there was no AI left for this walk (on GardenTrack Free the one walk was used; on a paid plan the week's credits ran out), or looking was paused at our end, or the pictures never reached us. The report names those stops rather than leaving you to guess, because a report where some stops were examined and some were not, with nothing saying which, is worse than one that admits it.
- Does this replace asking about a photo?
No, and they answer different questions. Asking about a photo is for "what is wrong with this?" — one plant, one worry, a proper answer you read right now.
A walk is for "here is my garden, read it". You go round, it reads every stop afterwards with what it knows about each one, and the report is there when you want it.
Shipped 2026-08-25. Last checked 2026-10-14. Something here wrong or out of date? Tell us — support docs going stale is a bug.