Nice idea, but given how limited the coverage is, you could save people a lot of time with a map, rather than everyone having to parse 17 regions to work out if they are in one you cover.
It might handle different locations a bit differently, but whichever option I use (feed insects, easy care, soak up rain, etc) it basically suggests me to just leave the most common weeds grow to end up with a heath covered in brambles/wild roses/various thorny weeds.
Which is logical I guess, if the goal is just to have native plants that grow naturally here. But I suspect few people are looking for this without any consideration to the ornamental and recreational qualities of the plants.
This is very cool! I got into native plants a few years ago when I moved out to the country. I have been using LLMs to help me with what to plant and where but they aren’t perfect. A couple things that’d be handy / cool to add:
- more info on deer hardiness
- more info on growth speed (show only fast growers)
- would be cool to add a feature for sets of plants too like “good for wild turkeys” or “plant these for all season pollination eg a set of plants that bloom early, middle, late”
That's pretty nice. I had to use mediterranean France as the closest analogue to North Atlantic Spain/Portugal, but the recommendations look about in line with our native flora.
However, I don't think any of the stated goals lined up with my use case here - in this specific region, we're trying to deal with rapidly warming/drying summers, and I'd be looking for recommendations to help with soil water retention, shade, etc.
Biggest obstacle for me is the giant invasive Ailanthus tree in my back yard. Apparently its roots produce allelopathic chemicals, and I’m finding that some native plants are unaffected (spicebush, wood fern) but others can’t cope at all (asters, cup plant).
I can’t find much if any info on this, so it’s been an ongoing experiment.
Which is logical I guess, if the goal is just to have native plants that grow naturally here. But I suspect few people are looking for this without any consideration to the ornamental and recreational qualities of the plants.
Congrats on the launch!
However, I don't think any of the stated goals lined up with my use case here - in this specific region, we're trying to deal with rapidly warming/drying summers, and I'd be looking for recommendations to help with soil water retention, shade, etc.
Biggest obstacle for me is the giant invasive Ailanthus tree in my back yard. Apparently its roots produce allelopathic chemicals, and I’m finding that some native plants are unaffected (spicebush, wood fern) but others can’t cope at all (asters, cup plant).
I can’t find much if any info on this, so it’s been an ongoing experiment.