GardenWise is a garden-planning app built to work entirely on your phone. We don't have user accounts, and unless you turn on the optional weekly garden email, nothing about your garden is stored anywhere but your phone. This page explains exactly what the app does with the few pieces of information it touches.
Everything you enter into GardenWise: your crops, planting dates, watering setup, harvest log, task history, and any photos you add, is saved locally on your phone using standard on-device storage. None of it is uploaded anywhere. If you delete the app, or use "Delete account" in Settings, that data is gone for good. There is no copy anywhere else to restore it from.
If you share your location or type in an address, GardenWise uses those coordinates for one purpose: to look up your local weather and estimate your area's frost dates, so planting and watering guidance is timed to where you actually garden instead of a generic month or hardiness zone.
To do this, your coordinates (or the address you typed) are sent directly from your phone to the following services, with no GardenWise server in between:
Each of these lookups sends only the coordinates or text needed to answer that one request, nothing that identifies you. GardenWise does not store your location on a server, and none of these services receive any other information about you or your garden. Each has its own privacy policy governing how it handles that request.
If you enter an email address during setup or in Settings, it's stored only on your device and never transmitted anywhere, unless you separately turn on "Email updates."
That toggle is off by default and never implied just by having an email on file. If you turn it on, your email is saved to our mailing list (stored on a small GardenWise server hosted on Cloudflare) and shared with our email provider, Loops (loops.so), so we can occasionally send you garden tips or product updates — a few times a season at most. Turning it off is recorded too, so we know not to email you. Every email includes an unsubscribe link, and turning the toggle back off in Settings stops any future sends. Loops has its own privacy policy governing how it handles that address.
If you join the launch waitlist on this website, the email you enter is saved to the same mailing list, so we can tell you when GardenWise is available and send the occasional garden tip. Every email includes an unsubscribe link.
"Weekly garden email" in Settings is off by default, and is separate from "Email updates" above. It's the only feature that stores anything about your garden off your phone.
When you turn it on, the app sends a copy of your garden setup to a small GardenWise server (hosted on Cloudflare) so it can work out each week's jobs while your phone is closed: your email, your time zone, your crops and when you planted them, your bed size and watering setup, your location (to check the weather forecast), harvests you've logged, and which tasks you've checked off. Your photos and notes are never sent. Nothing is emailed until you confirm your address through the link we send.
Emails are sent through Loops (loops.so). Every one includes an unsubscribe link. Turning the toggle off in Settings, or deleting your garden in the app, permanently deletes the server copy. An address that is never confirmed is deleted automatically after 14 days.
If you turn on reminders, they're scheduled directly on your phone through iOS. No notification server is involved, and no data leaves your device to make this work. They only go out on days something needs doing, plus a short watering plan on Sunday evenings.
A future version of GardenWise may include links to third-party retailers, such as Amazon, for products related to your garden (a fertilizer a task mentions, for example). If you tap one of those links and make a purchase, GardenWise may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.
Clicking a link like this takes you to that retailer's own website, governed by their own privacy policy, not this one. GardenWise does not send the retailer any of your personal data. The link itself is the only thing that connects the referral.
GardenWise isn't directed at children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect information from anyone in that age group. If we learn that a child under 13 has turned on the weekly garden email, we'll delete that server copy.
If this policy changes, we'll update the date at the top. Since GardenWise doesn't collect contact information from most users, we have no way to notify you directly, so please check back here occasionally.
Questions about this policy can be sent to gardenwiseinfo@gmail.com.