This Summer, Use ChatGPT to Help Plan Your Perfect Garden

CNET

6 hours ago

Starting a garden can be tricky work. There's soil, sun, water and a whole host of other factors that can be quite confusing but nevertheless contribute to the health and welfare of the plants and flowers you plan to install.
Then there's the fear, or in many cases, the cold, thorny, unavoidable reality of killing the plants. If you're not known for your green thumb, purchasing plants doomed to die can quickly become a frustrating and costly enterprise.
The good news is that there are AI tools you can use to find the right plants for your zone and home and discover the most useful gear and essentials you'll need to be sitting pretty amidst lush petals this time next year.
Plants with purpose
Rachel Kane/CNET
Whether you're looking to build a garden space that transports you to another place and time, feeds your body and your soul, or invites fanciful animals like bees, hummingbirds and butterflies into your everyday life, AI tools like ChatGPT can offer suggestions that help design exactly what you're looking for.
You can just use the free version of ChatGPT for this -- no need to pay to upgrade as it'll give you all the info you need without warranting a more advanced model. (Disclosure: Ziff Davis, CNET's parent company, in April filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.)
My own heart was set on a cottage-style garden with yellow potted and climbing roses that would serve as a sanctuary from incessant emails and stressful big city life. The only issue is this cottage garden filled with English roses is being planted in increasingly hot and humid Los Angeles.
ChatGPT took my idea for a cottage-style garden in a Southern California setting and gave me excellent recommendations for plants that would give the space that dynamic yet proper and polite look, but that could also stand up to the blazing sun of LA summers.
My first prompt: "I'm looking to plant a rose garden and have purchased yellow roses. Trying to decide on complementary flowers to plant with the roses."
ChatGPT suggested some potential design goals for me -- like color harmony, shape contrast, seasonal support and "functional partners" -- and then gave me a list of companion flowers:
ChatGPT / Screenshot by CNET
Planting a garden for bouquets
A cut flower garden, one designed to serve as a palette for indoor arrangements, can be a joy for people who want to bring life, color and creativity into their homes regularly without forking over $50 every other week for flowers from the store.
Any bouquet can be re-created in garden form with ChatGPT and other AI tools, which can review images of completed arrangements, identify the plants and flowers featured and offer insights into whether they'd be a fit for your garden:
ChatGPT / Screenshot by CNET
ChatGPT / Screenshot by CNET
ChatGPT even offered some healthy alternatives to the plant life that might have a hard time taking root in certain zones, with suggestions based on how closely the flowers and plants match the ideal arrangement elements' appearance.
The AI tool generated a cross-referenced list of plants and flowers that took into account the weather, look and scent of a garden designed for harvesting for indoor arrangements.
ChatGPT / Screenshot by CNET
It's not enough to understand the zones in which the flowers and plants you'd like in your garden will thrive. A horticulturist friend mentioned that mixing plants with different water and soil needs would make for a very complicated care process.
AI tools like ChatGPT can compare plants you're interested in for their water and soil compatibility and make suggestions that harmonize your garden's care plans.
I used some plants at a local botanical garden as a starting point, and ChatGPT was able to generate a compatibility review to see if they all meshed well and how much care might be involved in keeping them happy.
Rachel Kane/CNET
It provided another table with checkboxes about each flower type and their soil needs, water needs and compatibility with my garden.
Sun spots and shady glades
Your garden might have a few different levels of sun exposure, and AI tools like ChatGPT can take stock of the sunshine available across the space you plan to plant, offering expert-level advice on what kinds of flowers live their best lives in the sun, and which like to play it cool in the shade.
Just describe each space in your garden that you want to grow things in, and mention how many hours of sun, partial sun and shade they get on average.
Maintenance via gadget
Maintaining the health and life cycles of plants in your garden requires some serious consideration, especially if you're dealing with plants that need a lot of attention and individual care to reach their peak potential.
AI tools like ChatGPT can offer a range of prices and sources for gadgets, doohickies and thingamabobs designed to keep your plants and flowers tip-top.
Get in the Zone
Take photos of any gardens or flowers you like, upload them to ChatGPT and get instant answers on what their names are, how much watering they need, what types of soil they require and whether they're compatible with your climate zone.
Rachel Kane/CNET
Horticulturists and amateur gardeners alike use zones designated by the US Department of Agriculture to give them insight into which plants will thrive in certain parts of the US.
ChatGPT can generate an explanation of exactly which zone you're in and generate valuable insights into what additions to your garden will whither and wilt or thrive and survive in that zone. Just make sure to double-check all the information generated from AI chatbots -- in case it hallucinates a wrong answer -- before you put down roots.