GardenPal — Intelligent Gardening Companion
The Problem
Gardening has a steep learning curve that discourages beginners. Research shows that 67% of gardening apps fail new growers, and roughly 40% of people abandon the hobby within their first year. Existing tools are either too simplistic or too complex — nothing in between for a nervous beginner, especially one tailored to UK growing conditions.
The Solution
GardenPal is a full-stack SaaS web application with intelligent task automation, structured plant tracking, harvest analytics, and gamification. The core loop: plant something, get auto-generated care tasks, complete them, log your harvest, earn achievements, and learn as you go.
Key Features
Smart Task Management
When a user adds a plant, the system automatically generates a care schedule from curated templates — watering, feeding, pruning, pest control, and seasonal tasks. Tasks adapt based on zone conditions and adjust for weather via OpenWeatherMap. Seven view modes with drag-and-drop rescheduling.
Plant & Zone Tracking
Gardens organised into zones with grid-based layouts. 50+ UK food crops with scientific names, difficulty ratings, sowing periods, companion planting data, and full lifecycle tracking.
Harvest Logging & Cost Savings
Every harvest logged with quantity and quality. The system calculates cost savings against supermarket prices — averaging around £127 per growing season.
Gamification & Achievements
10 levels, 42 unique badges across five categories, Bronze/Silver/Gold tiers, hidden badges, and streak tracking with confetti celebrations.
Multi-User Collaboration
Garden sharing with four roles (Owner, Editor, Member, Viewer), granular permissions, and activity feeds.
Privacy & GDPR Compliance
Granular privacy controls, audit logging, full data export, account deletion, and parental controls — all architected from the start.
Architecture & Technology
| Layer | Technology |
|---|---|
| Framework | Next.js 15 (App Router) + React 19 |
| Language | TypeScript (strict mode) |
| Styling | Tailwind CSS + shadcn/ui |
| API | tRPC 11 (end-to-end type-safe RPC) |
| Database | PostgreSQL on Neon (serverless) |
| ORM | Prisma 6 |
| Auth | NextAuth.js + Supabase |
| Payments | Stripe |
| Storage | AWS S3 |
| Testing | Vitest + Playwright |
| Hosting | Vercel |
Scale & Complexity
- 52 services handling business logic across all domains
- 25+ database models in a comprehensive relational schema
- 25+ tRPC route modules providing full API coverage
- 212 end-to-end tests covering critical user flows
- 6 automated cron jobs for background processing
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