How ChatGPT helped me gardening this year?

This year my commitment is to integrate AI into my everyday activities, with a special focus on gardening—a domain where my expertise was less than green.

Traditionally, my garden has been a battleground where I've mistakenly waged war against spinach, mistaking it for weeds, and vice versa, often uprooting the very vegetables I aimed to nurture. This mix-up not only affected my harvest but also left me frustrated at my inability to distinguish friend from foe in my own backyard.

Prompted by these gardening challenges, I turned to ChatGPT, leveraging its advanced computer vision capabilities to distinguish between various plants. ChatGPT not only helped me identify what was growing in my garden but also provided detailed insights through its natural language processing abilities. Now, I could understand the needs and characteristics of each plant, ensuring that my garden was tended with informed precision.

Let me share some practical examples:

One day, while tending to my garden, I encountered a plant that I couldn't identify. Curious, I took a photo and uploaded it to ChatGPT. I simply asked, "What plant is this?"

ChatGPT: The plant in the image appears to be lungwort (Pulmonaria species), known for its distinctive spotted or mottled leaves and early spring flowers. It's a popular choice in gardens for its decorative foliage and the clusters of blue, pink, or white flowers it produces.

That's a good information. So, tried another one.

ChatGPT: The plant in the middle of your image appears to be a type of Polygonum species, commonly known as knotweed. This group includes several varieties, some of which are considered invasive. They are characterized by their jointed stems, which resemble bamboo, and their small, densely clustered flowers. If it's a garden variety, it might be less aggressive compared to wild varieties like Japanese knotweed.

Pleased with the accurate identification, I realized I needed more specific advice to make informed decisions. So, my next question to ChatGPT was: "Is this plant bad for my vegetable garden?"

ChatGPT: Knotweed can indeed be problematic in a vegetable garden. It grows aggressively and can quickly dominate the space, competing with your vegetables for nutrients, water, and light. If not controlled, it can hinder the growth of your vegetable plants and make gardening more challenging due to its dense and spreading nature. It's advisable to remove it by pulling out the roots completely or continually cutting it back to prevent it from establishing and spreading further.

Encouraged by the initial success, I continued to upload more photos of various garden inhabitants. ChatGPT responded not only with identifications but also with actionable advice, guiding me on which plants were beneficial and which were detrimental to my garden's health. It started advising on which specimens to nurture and which to remove, transforming my approach to garden maintenance.

ChatGPT:The plant in the image you provided is lamb's quarters (Chenopodium album), a common weed often found in gardens and fields. It's characterized by its broad, green leaves that sometimes have a white, powdery coating. Interestingly, lamb's quarters is not only a vigorous weed but also edible and nutritious, known for its high vitamin and mineral content. It can be eaten raw or cooked like spinach. However, if you're trying to maintain a specific planting arrangement or don't want it competing with other plants in your garden, you might consider removing it.

When I uploaded a picture of Stinging nettle, it provided information about the benefits and drawbacks as well.

ChatGPT: The plant shown in your image is a young stinging nettle (Urtica dioica). Recognizable by its toothed, pointed leaves and hairy texture, stinging nettle is known for the tiny hairs on its leaves and stems that can cause a painful sting when touched. This plant is often found in gardens and wild areas, growing well in rich soil. Despite its sting, nettle is highly valued for its nutritional content and medicinal properties, used in herbal teas and cooking once blanched or cooked to remove the stinging hairs. It's important to handle it with gloves to avoid irritation.

Stinging nettle can be both beneficial and problematic in a vegetable garden. Here are a few considerations:

Benefits:

1. Nutrient-rich: Nettle is known for accumulating a wealth of nutrients, including nitrogen, which can enrich the soil when used as green manure or compost.

2. Herbal uses: It's highly valued for its medicinal properties and as a nutritious addition to the diet.

3. Attracts beneficial insects: Nettle supports biodiversity by attracting beneficial insects, which can help with pollination and natural pest control.

Drawbacks:

1. Invasive growth: If not managed, stinging nettle can spread quickly and compete with your vegetables for space, light, and nutrients.

2. Stinging hairs: The plant’s hairs can cause irritation to the skin, making it a nuisance for gardeners to handle.

Management:

- If you choose to keep it, consider controlling its spread by cutting it back regularly and possibly confining it to a specific area.

- It can be removed by carefully digging out the roots to prevent regrowth.

Overall, whether it's "bad" depends on how well you manage it and utilize its benefits in your garden. If it's causing more trouble than benefits, it might be best to remove it.

This newfound clarity and support from ChatGPT boosted my confidence immensely. With each successful identification and correct decision, my reliance on the tool grew. Soon, I began using it to assess the health of my plants, further deepening my engagement with AI to ensure that my garden not only survived but thrived.

In one instance, I noticed the leaves of my rose bushes appeared unusually sickly. Eager for a solution, I uploaded a picture to ChatGPT and asked, "Why do these rose leaves look sick?" This inquiry marked a shift from mere identification to diagnosing plant health, leveraging AI to delve deeper into plant care and pathology.

ChatGPT:The leaves on your rose plant appear to have a reddish-purple coloring, which can be caused by a few different factors:

1. Temperature Stress: In cooler temperatures, particularly during the early spring or late fall, rose leaves can turn reddish-purple. This is a normal response to the colder weather and usually resolves as temperatures stabilize.

2. Nutrient Deficiency: A phosphorus deficiency can also cause leaves to turn purplish. This is more common in cooler soil temperatures, which can limit nutrient uptake.

3. Sunlight Exposure: If new growth or leaves that were previously shaded are suddenly exposed to direct sunlight, they can develop a reddish-purple tinge due to increased anthocyanin (a pigment) production, which helps protect the plant from too much light.

4. Pests or Disease: Check for signs of pests or disease. Certain diseases can cause discoloration, though they usually present other symptoms like spots, stunted growth, or distortion of the leaves.

It’s good practice to check the overall health of the plant, ensure it’s getting adequate water and nutrients, and consider if recent weather conditions or changes in its environment might be contributing to the color change. If the coloration is accompanied by poor plant growth or other symptoms, it might be worth investigating further for possible nutrient deficiencies or pest issues.

You might be surprised to learn that the ChatGPT's 3rd suggestion was spot-on: I had recently moved the plant from the sheltered environment of my outdoor patio to a more exposed spot under the direct sun. This transition was pinpointed by ChatGPT as a potential cause for the distress observed in the rose leaves, demonstrating how finely tuned the AI's diagnostic abilities are to real-life gardening situations.

Encouraged by the successes so far, I next turned to ChatGPT with questions about the broader aspects of gardening, specifically about harvesting techniques and the timing of flower blooms.

As my potato plants began to flourish, I captured a photo and uploaded it to ChatGPT, seeking guidance on the optimal harvesting time. I inquired, "When can I harvest these potatoes?". Upon examining the photo of my potato plants, ChatGPT pointed out the presence of flowers—a key indicator of the plant's maturity.

ChatGPT:Potato plants are typically ready to harvest when they start to flower and the foliage begins to yellow and die back. Here’s how you can judge the right time to harvest based on the maturity of the potatoes:

1. New Potatoes: These are harvested early when the plants are still flowering, usually about 10 weeks after planting. These potatoes are smaller and have tender skins.

2. Mature Potatoes: For fully mature potatoes, wait until the foliage has died back completely, which is generally about 2-4 weeks after the plants stop flowering. At this stage, the skins are tougher and the potatoes are larger, which makes them better for storage.

From your photo, it looks like your plant is still flowering. If you’re interested in new potatoes, you could start checking by gently digging around the base of a plant to see if any small potatoes can be harvested without disturbing the plant too much. For mature potatoes, you would wait until the flowers have died off and the leaves begin to yellow before harvesting.

Then I uploaded a picture of an iris.

ChatGPT:The plant in your image is an iris. Irises typically bloom in late spring to early summer, depending on the climate and specific variety. Since you're seeing mature leaves already, you can likely expect blooms within the next few weeks. Keep an eye out for flower stalks beginning to form, which is a good sign that blooms will follow shortly after. Proper care, including ensuring they're in a sunny spot and have well-draining soil, will help promote healthy blooms.

As I reflect on this year's gardening journey, the integration of ChatGPT into my gardening practices has been nothing short of transformative. From distinguishing weeds from vegetables to diagnosing plant health and timing harvests, this AI tool has become an indispensable part of my gardening toolkit. With each query answered and every piece of advice heeded, my garden has flourished more than I could have ever imagined. I'm not just growing plants; I'm cultivating a deeper understanding and appreciation for the ecosystem in my backyard. Thanks to AI, I look forward to each gardening season with greater confidence and excitement, ready to nurture and grow alongside my garden.