Apps for Spring

Apps for Spring
By Mike Pepper

There’s an app for spring! A bunch of them, in fact. Of course there are. Lawn and garden, spring cleaning, or whatever comes to mind when you think spring – chances are good that if you search for an app to help, you’ll find at least one.

For lawn and garden apps, plethora is the word. We’re not all wizards in the yard (or maybe we’re just short of time), so along with the shovels and rakes, haul out an app to help with getting the garden in order. All of these apps are available for both Apple and Android smartphones and tablets. Search for them by name in the app store for your device.

“GrowIt!” is a sort of social media app for gardening. You can share photos of your yard and garden, and see what other folks in the area are doing. There are lots of tips from other gardeners, pro and amateur, and lots of photos, too.

“Garden Answers” is a yard and garden plant identifier app, with extra info about care and, if needed, about treating plant diseases. To identify a plant, open the app and snap a picture of the flower or leaves. Almost instantly, you get identification and a lot of information about the plant. Post a question about some symptom that your plant is showing and a community of experts will respond with suggestions for what to do about it. These are just two of a great many gardening related apps. Search for them online. Be as specific as possible to narrow the wide-ranging results.

Spring cleaning is another bounteous topic for apps. Most are about organizing the tasks at hand, but there are also plenty of tips, and lots of encouragement. Some are social media, community oriented, while others are method oriented to assist or guide you through their preferred process.There are also apps for planning walks, in the urban world and in the wilder regions. And there are apps for tracking annual maintenance to get ready for summer. And if you’ve just had enough of getting ready for stuff, there are apps for finding the best place for a Spring Break!

Mike Pepper, The Computer Guy, has been providing software and hardware support in New York and Connecticut for more than 35 years. He can be reached at (845) 855-5824, or www.PawlingComputerGuy.com.