Whether you're just getting started or looking for a specific answer, this page covers the key concepts and common questions.
Looking for the plot designer guide? It's over here.
You add a plant. Leaftide predicts your growing schedule based on your location and frost dates. As you record what's happening in your garden (germination, transplanting, first harvest), care tasks appear automatically and predictions get more accurate over time.
That's really all there is to it. The sections below explain each piece.
Every plant goes through stages: Sown, Germinated, Hardened Off, Growing in Place, Ready for Harvest. When you add a plant, Leaftide predicts when each stage should happen based on your location and frost dates. You just record when each one actually happens, and predictions get more accurate over time.
Not every plant goes through every stage. A direct-sown lettuce skips Potted Up and Hardened Off. A tomato started indoors will see the full sequence. Leaftide figures out which stages apply based on your starting method.
Permanent plants (trees, shrubs, perennials) have their own yearly stages like Bud Break, Flowering, Fruiting, and Leaf Fall, based on observations you log over time rather than a single grow cycle.
Leaftide comes with built-in care routines for each plant type. As your plant progresses through stages, relevant tasks appear automatically, like fertilising after transplanting or netting before fruiting. You can also create your own custom routines.
Routines generate tasks. Each routine is linked to a stage, so when your plant reaches that stage, the task appears on your dashboard. When you record "Germinated", any routine triggered by germination creates its task automatically.
Both predictions and care tasks show up together on your Coming Up dashboard:
When you add a seasonal plant, Leaftide sets up dates and a starting method based on your schedule. The Planning Board shows all your plants that haven't been started yet. It's where you can adjust dates, change the starting method, or remove a plant before you commit to growing it. Once you record your first stage, the plant moves to Active.
You can dismiss a care routine from the plant's Care tab, or directly from the task card on your Coming Up dashboard. Once dismissed, it won't come back for that plant type. If you change your mind later, you can re-adopt it from the Recommendations section.
Go to Settings → My Garden → Custom Varieties. You'll see all the varieties you've created. Use the pencil icon to edit or the bin icon to delete.
When adding a permanent plant, you can choose Reference Only mode. This keeps the plant in your garden as a catalog entry with no stage tracking, no predictions, and no tasks. You can also switch an existing plant to Reference Only from its settings anytime. Useful for plants you just want to remember you have, without actively tracking them.
When you're in the plant starter wizard, look for the option to switch to Advanced mode. This unlocks extra options: choose your starting method, set exact dates, plan backwards from a plant-out date, and create a prep checklist. Once you switch, it stays as your default for future plants.
In the plot designer, switch to View Mode and use the Share button. This creates a public link anyone can view without an account. You can also tick the option to show your garden on the Leaftide community page, which helps other gardeners find inspiration.
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