Hey, I'm Stephen

I've grown things since college (tomatoes). Then we bought a house and it was time for some bigger projects. After my daughter was born, I wanted to put together a butterfly garden for her. I started watching native plant YouTube while she napped on me, and it kind of took off from there.

Then I started talking to neighbors. Some of them had gotten pushback from the HOA for their front yard plantings. I looked at my own plans and realized I had the same problem. I liked a lot of natives that might look “weedy” to an HOA board, and I was planting too many species.

I went down a research hole. NPSOT plant lists. Nursery websites to check what was actually available. Pet toxicity databases, because the dogs eat everything. Nassauer's research on cues of care, which is basically how to make a native garden look intentional instead of neglected. HOA guidelines and CC&Rs.

All of that information existed. It was just spread across a dozen sources and it wasn't connected well. I bought plants from four different native nurseries before I had anything close to a real plan.

I had no coding experience before this. This is a passion project of mine. I'm one person with limited hours, a day job, and a toddler who doesn't care about my release schedule. I use AI to write code, organize data, and build the app faster than I could alone. Without it, this would still be a spreadsheet on my laptop.

The plant data is real. Every species in the app comes from verified sources (NPSOT, nursery databases, toxicity references). AI doesn't pick which plants to recommend. When the app suggests a species for your yard, that recommendation is backed by data I've checked.

I posted in the r/NativePlantGardening community using AI-written text instead of my own words, and the community called me out. They were right. That was lazy. I use my own voice now.