Opening a bed
Once you have created a bed, it appears in the overview. Simply click anywhere on the bed, for example on the name or an existing planting.
You can also find the bed in the left navigation under “Beds”. This navigation is especially handy when you already have a bed open and want to switch to another one quickly.
Page layout
The page is split into two areas:
- Left: The bed display. This area looks different depending on the bed type:
- Free bed: You see the bed from above, one month at a time. Next to the bed you find the month selector to browse through the months. For each month you can see which plantings are added (green) and which are harvested (red). The month selector comes in two variants: compact (just the number of arriving and departing plants) and normal (with full plant names).
- Row companion planting: You see the bed from the front edge. The months are arranged below each other so you can plan the development of your bed across the year.
- Right: Different panels alternate here:
- Plant list: You can filter or search for plants. Actions let you create a new planting.
- Create new planting: When you start a new planting from the plant list, you can click the desired spot in the bed on the left to place it.
- Edit existing planting: This panel appears when you click an existing planting in the bed.
Mobile devices
On a narrow screen (on a smartphone), the bed view and the other panels (plant list, new planting, edit planting) are shown as tabs above the bed instead of side by side. For free beds the month selector appears as its own tab, with the currently active month as the tab title.
In some cases grove automatically switches to the right tab, for example from the plant list to the bed when you start a new planting.
Plant list
This list shows all available plants. Each plant has three actions:
Information: Shows detailed information about the plant. Direct sowing: You create a new planting where you sow seeds directly into the bed. Transplanting: You create a new planting where you place a seedling into the bed.
The distinction between direct sowing and transplanting affects which month the planting can start in. The planned tasks also differ depending on the method.
Filter
grove offers extensive filter options for plants. These are described in a separate chapter of the guide.
New planting
Creating a new planting
You can start a new planting in two ways:
- Drag & drop: Drag the plant image directly into the bed. grove automatically picks the most common method (direct sowing or transplanting). You can also drag one of the two buttons specifically into the bed.
- Click: Click Direct sowing or Transplanting. Then place the planting in the bed:
- Free bed: Draw the area where the planting should go with your mouse or finger.
- Row companion planting: Tap the row where the planting should be placed.
Placing the planting
When placing, grove shows you which positions are suitable. For all bed types, good and bad neighbours are displayed (coloured green or red). Hatched areas indicate good or bad predecessors. More on both points further below.
For row companion planting there are also small green and red marks showing where you can place the plant. Green means: well suited. Red means: unfavourable.
When you hover over a red position, grove explains the reason, e.g. too little distance to a neighbouring plant or to the bed edge, or an unsuitable time.
You can still select any position. grove only gives you hints, the decision is yours.
Planting month
Free bed: The planting is created in the month currently selected in the month selector. If no suitable planting time is found for that month, grove will let you know and optionally suggest a suitable month.
Row companion planting: You determine the first month of the planting by placing the plant in that month.
For all bed types the harvest month is calculated based on the planting times.
The ‘New planting’ panel
As soon as you start a new planting, a new panel appears on the right instead of the plant list:
- You can specify the variety and add notes to the planting. The variety affects task creation.
- Important plant data is shown, such as row spacing and spacing within the row.
- An overview of planting times shows you the possible periods. Some plants have multiple times, e.g. for early and late varieties.
- The “Plant info” button lets you view further details about the plant.
Editing and removing an existing planting
Click a planting in the bed to select it. The planting is highlighted in orange and an action menu appears.
Action menu
The action menu lets you:
- Open plant info
- Delete the planting
- Duplicate the planting (inserted right next to the original)
- Free bed: Change the row orientation
- Row companion planting: Move the planting one row to the left or right
Moving and resizing a planting
Free bed: You move a planting via drag & drop. On touch devices you need to tap the planting first to activate drag & drop. Orange handles appear at the corners and sides of the selected planting. You can use these to resize the planting. In the settings you can choose whether plantings should ‘magnetically’ snap to each other or not.
Row companion planting: Here too you move plantings via drag & drop:
- Drag the planting to a different row.
- Drag the first month to start the planting earlier or later.
- Drag the last month to change the harvest time.
Edit panel
On the right, the detail view of the selected planting appears instead of the plant list. Here you can:
- Change the planting method (from direct sowing to seedlings or vice versa).
- Adjust start month and harvest time. For some plants the harvest can extend into the following year (e.g. Brussels sprouts). grove then shows the planting in the next year as well.
- Move the row: Use the small left and right arrows to shift the planting one row left or right.
- Delete the planting: The button at the bottom removes the planting completely.
Important: Changes are saved immediately. You can then simply select another planting or close the edit panel at the top right.
Replanting at the same spot after harvest
You can find this option both when creating and editing a planting. Some plants are harvested and directly re-sown or replanted throughout the year (e.g. lettuce and radishes).
The checkbox tells grove that you want to replant regularly at this spot.
This affects how long the planting lasts in the bed plan. An example: radishes have a growing period of about one month but can be harvested until September. If you start in April and activate replanting, grove plans the planting through to September. Without the checkbox it ends in May.
The tasks in the plan do not change because of this. You decide yourself when to replant.
Bed layout
The layout and display of the bed depends on the selected bed type:
Free bed
You see the bed width horizontally and the bed length vertically. Rulers and a grid are shown to give you a better feel for the distances. You can change or deactivate these in the settings.
Row companion planting on beds
Below the bed the available space is shown. If no planting has been created yet, you see the bed width. When creating a planting, the bed is always divided into 5 cm sections. Once you place a planting, the distance to the edge is shown on both sides. With multiple plantings you see the distance between them.
Gertrud Franck and Langerhorst family method
Here the bed is not shown in centimetres but divided into A, B and C rows. You also see spinach rows, and with the Langerhorst family method the clover paths as well.
Multiple plantings at the same spot
It is possible to combine multiple plants at the same spot.
Free bed: Plantings can overlap partially or completely. This is practical when plants have different growing phases or you deliberately want to plant good partners together.
Row companion planting: You can combine multiple plants in the same row, e.g. celeriac and leek, which benefit each other. They are then displayed slightly offset from one another.
When you click such a planting, you can choose in the edit panel at the top right which of the plantings you want to edit.
Neighbours
A key aspect of companion planting is good and bad neighbours. As soon as you start a new planting, grove shows you how the new plant gets along with the existing ones:
- Green background: Good neighbours, they support each other.
- Red background: Bad neighbours, better to avoid.
Tip: With the filter dialog you can specifically search for plants that are good neighbours for certain other plants. You can even select multiple plants, and grove shows you plants that are good or at least neutral neighbours to all of them.
Important: Good neighbours are only shown during editing, otherwise the bed would be too cluttered. Bad neighbours are always shown, even when you are not currently editing a planting.
Crop rotation / predecessors
You will only see this section once you have worked with grove for at least one year. grove remembers for each bed which plants grew where in previous years, going back up to seven years.
For beds using the Gertrud Franck or Langerhorst family methods you will not see this feature. With these beds the well-thought-out crop rotation is already built into the growing method. More on this here.
When you create a new planting or edit an existing one, grove shows you directly in the bed whether there were good or bad predecessors at the desired spot:
- Green hatched means: the plant that previously grew there is a good predecessor for the new planting.
- Red hatched means: the previous plant is a bad predecessor, for example because it left behind diseases or certain substances in the soil.
In the hatched area you see the name of the predecessor plant and the year it grew there. Plus and minus symbols give you an indication of the strength of the effect:
- One or two plus signs (+ / ++) stand for somewhat good or especially beneficial predecessors.
- One or two minus signs (- / –) for somewhat unfavourable or especially problematic predecessors.
If both good and bad predecessors were at a spot in recent years, grove shows only the bad ones, since their negative effect generally outweighs the benefits of the good ones.
To help you keep track across multiple years, predecessor information is shown in multiple lines, depending on how many years you have worked with grove:
- The top line shows predecessors from three years ago,
- the middle line from two years ago,
- the bottom line from last year.
A line only appears if there actually were good or bad predecessors in that year.
The width of the hatched area corresponds to the influence zone of the predecessor plant. Large plants like cabbage or beans have a wider effect than smaller ones like lettuce or radishes.
When you are not editing a planting, grove only shows the problematic predecessors in the bed. These are then displayed directly behind the respective planting, with information about what the bad predecessor was.
Keyboard
You can use the keyboard to speed up certain actions. Here are the available keys:
- Esc: Cancel creating or editing
- ends editing a planting
- cancels creating a new planting
- Delete / Backspace: Deletes the currently selected (edited) planting
- Arrow keys (only when a planting is selected)
- Free bed: ← / → / ↑ / ↓ moves the planting by 1 cm
- Row companion planting bed: ← / → moves the planting by one row
- Shift + arrow keys (only when a planting is selected)
- Free bed: Shift + ← / → / ↑ / ↓ shrinks or expands
- Row companion planting bed: No function
- Ctrl/Cmd + arrow keys: Same function, but 5 cm or 5 rows
- Ctrl/Cmd + C: Copies the currently selected (edited) planting
- Ctrl/Cmd + F: Opens the plant filter dialog (plant list)
- Ctrl/Cmd + I: Opens the info dialog for the current plant
- + / –: Zoom (no function yet for row companion planting beds)
Settings
You can show and hide various elements. This mainly covers neighbours and crop rotation.
Printing
grove prints your bed similarly to how you see it on screen. Not everyone wants to stand in the garden with a laptop or tablet, after all.
In the print settings you can specify the paper format, orientation and scaling. For smaller beds two months might fit side by side on one page.