Growing Guide
Build Your Garden on Your Actual Land
Sources: USGS 3DEP, NAIP-CHM canopy, USDA SSURGO, FEMA NFHL, NOAA Climate Normals
Bed Types
4 presets
In-ground, raised bed, container, greenhouse
Plant Database
1,112
USDA PLANTS + Extension
Data Sources
25+
Federal + state APIs
What makes a garden planner actually useful
Most garden planners give you a blank grid and a list of plants. You drag and drop. It looks satisfying on screen — then the tomatoes go in the spot that gets two hours of sun, the raised bed lands in the flood zone, and the blueberries fail because the soil pH is 7.5.
The problem isn't the planner. It's the absence of site context. A blank canvas treats every square foot of your yard as identical — but it's not. Sun exposure varies across your parcel based on tree canopy, building shadows, and slope orientation. Soil pH and drainage change within a single property. Flood risk can affect one corner but not another.
Garden Builder starts with your actual parcel — your real property boundary, measured conditions, and federal data layers — so every bed you place already knows what it's working with.
Try it on YOUR land
See your sun, soil, and growing conditions — then place beds and get plant recommendations for each spot.
Three things about your exact spot that zone averages miss:
We read public map data for this spot — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources analyzed in seconds
How it works: three steps from address to plan
Growable Ground finds your parcel boundary, pulls your site report (sun, soil, flood, contamination, climate), and loads your property on a high-resolution map.
Click to place beds on your map. Choose in-ground, raised bed, container, or greenhouse. Each bed samples the actual conditions at that location on your parcel.
Each bed gets plant recommendations scored against the conditions at that specific spot — not your parcel average, but that bed's sun, soil, and drainage.
The data behind each bed comes from raster point sampling — the system reads the sun hours raster (cast over terrain, buildings, and a leaf-on canopy model) and SSURGO soil polygons at the exact coordinates where you placed the bed. Move a bed 30 feet and the scores can change.
Pro TipScoring adjusts to how you grow
Not every bed touches native soil. The scoring engine recognizes four growing contexts and adjusts constraints accordingly:
- In-ground: Full constraint set — your native soil pH, drainage class, and organic matter all factor into every plant score. This is the most site-dependent context.
- Raised bed: Soil constraints are relaxed because you control the growing medium. Sun, climate, and hardiness zone still apply. Drainage scoring assumes well-drained imported mix.
- Container: Soil and drainage constraints are bypassed entirely. Scoring focuses on sun hours, growing season length, and cold tolerance. Container suitability is factored in — not everything thrives in a pot.
- Greenhouse: Climate constraints are relaxed. Frost dates, minimum temperatures, and chill hours are adjusted for a protected growing environment. Sun hours still come from your site's own sun-and-shade cast.
This means the same plant can score differently in a raised bed versus in-ground on the same parcel — because the constraints are genuinely different. A blueberry that scores poorly in-ground at pH 7.4 might score well in a raised bed filled with acidic growing mix.
From plan to planting calendar
Plants you select in Garden Builder feed into the Season Planner, which calculates planting windows based on your local frost dates. Frost date data comes from NOAA climate normals — the average last spring frost and first fall frost for your location, derived from decades of weather station records.
The Season Planner generates a timeline view, a task list, and a calendar. You can export the entire schedule as an iCal (.ics) file — import it into Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, or any app that supports the iCal standard, and get reminders when it's time to start seeds, transplant, or harvest.
Because the planting windows are derived from your location's frost dates, they reflect your actual growing season — not a generic zone chart.
Try it on YOUR land
See your sun, soil, and growing conditions — then place beds and get plant recommendations for each spot.
Three things about your exact spot that zone averages miss:
We read public map data for this spot — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources analyzed in seconds
Frequently Asked Questions
How is Garden Builder different from other garden planners?
Most garden planners start with a blank grid. Garden Builder starts with your actual parcel — your real property boundary, a parcel-specific sun-and-shade map, SSURGO soil data, and FEMA flood zones. Recommendations are scored against your site's actual conditions, not generic advice.
What data does Garden Builder use to score my beds?
Each bed is scored using a sun cast over terrain, buildings, and a leaf-on canopy model for sun hours, USDA SSURGO for soil pH and drainage, FEMA NFHL for flood risk, and your USDA hardiness zone for cold tolerance. Beds in different parts of your property get different scores because the conditions vary.
Can I plan raised beds and containers, not just in-ground plots?
Yes. Garden Builder supports in-ground beds, raised beds, containers, and greenhouse structures. Raised beds and containers bypass your native soil constraints — the scoring engine adjusts accordingly, using imported soil assumptions for pH and drainage while still using your site's actual sun and climate data.
Does Garden Builder connect to a planting calendar?
Yes. Plants selected in Garden Builder feed into the Season Planner, which calculates planting windows based on your local frost dates from NOAA climate normals. You can export the schedule as an iCal file to your phone or calendar app.