The full tour
How Pollinator Patch works
Every part of the app, in the order you would meet it: what you answer, what comes back, and what happens once the plants are in the ground.
Last updated: July 2026
Short answer
You tell Pollinator Patch your ZIP code, how big the bed is, and how much sun and water it gets. You get back a one-page planting plan, a project packet with installation and care notes, nearby nurseries that stock the plants, and watering reminders through the season.
What you tell Patch
ZIP code, bed size, sun, and water
Four answers are enough to build a plan. Everything after them is optional, and each one narrows the plant list a little further.
ZIP code
Your ZIP resolves to an EPA Level III ecoregion, a boundary that follows soil and rainfall instead of state lines. Every plant suggested is native to that region.
Bed size
Pick small, medium, large, or a custom size in feet. Alongside it you choose how many different species you want, which sets how the bed fills in.
Sun
Full sun is six hours or more. Part sun is three to six. Shade is under three. Most front-yard beds get more sun than people expect.
Water
Low, medium, or high. Low leans on plants that live on rainfall once their roots are established.
The optional questions
Quick plan keeps everything on one screen and builds from there. The longer paths ask more: the look you want, how strict your HOA is about front yards, your soil, your budget, and whether there are pets to keep safe. Answer the pet question and the plan leaves out species the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center lists as toxic to dogs, cats, or horses (aspca.org). Skip any of them and the plan still builds.
The Quick plan questions
What you get back
A one-page plan and a four-tab project packet
Everything below is built from the same handful of answers, for your ecoregion and your bed.
The plan and its four tabs
Installation and DIY notes
Nurseries sorted by distance
The one-page plan
One shareable page holding the before and after views, the plant list with quantities, a twelve-month bloom row, the numbers for your bed, a savings summary, and the sources behind the plant choices. It exports as a PDF.
The project packet
Four tabs. Plants holds the full species list with a bloom calendar that gives each plant its own color. Install covers spacing and the order to plant in. HOA holds a review summary you can hand to a board. Rebates holds the application steps for programs near you.
The full HOA packet, with Pro
A polished export of a saved plan built for submitting to an HOA for review, in four sections: HOA Review Summary, Installation Details, Homeowner DIY Guide, and Appendix: Notes and Disclaimers. It presents your plan for review and does not include letters or dispute help.
Nurseries and care reminders
Find a Nursery sorts native plant nurseries by distance from your ZIP, and shows how many of your plants a partner has in stock and when that was last checked. Once plants are in your garden, watering and seasonal care tasks arrive as notifications timed to your region.
Inside the app
Two spaces, five buttons, and Ask Patch
The bottom bar groups five buttons under two headings: Plants and Wildlife under Explore, Plan and Care under My Garden, with Home between them. Ask Patch floats on every screen, and Account sits behind the gear icon.
HOME
Home: this week and where you left off
Home opens on the two things that decide what you do this week: the weather, and the project already in progress.
- A five-day local forecast, including when rain is coming and when to expect a freeze
- A pick back up card that reopens your project on the step you left it, with how far along you are
- Garden Inspiration, real native front yards from towns near you
- The notification bell, where care reminders and finished renderings land
- Recent writing from the Xerces Society, the National Wildlife Federation, and the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center
EXPLORE
Explore: plants, wildlife, and what nurseries have in stock
Explore is the reference half of the app. Browse by plant or by the wildlife you want to bring in, then check who nearby actually sells it.
- Native plants with photos, bloom season, mature size, and pet-safety notes
- Filters that matter for a front yard, including HOA-Friendly, sun, and water
- A line on each plant saying whether it grew in your ecoregion before the neighborhood did, with the range source cited
- A Care tab on each plant with seasonal steps written for your ecoregion
- In stock and Widely available labels, so you can see what is actually buyable near you
- Butterflies, moths, and bees, alongside the Learn guides
MY GARDEN, PLAN
Plan: six paths from a blank yard to a plant list
The Plan tab holds your projects and the tools that fill them. Six planning paths share one entry point, so you can start from whatever question you already have. Each path includes a free use.
- A five-step project pipeline: Rebate, Designs, Approvals, Purchase, Install
- Garden Planner 2.0 for styles, palettes, and a full site plan you can print, working from a traced bed or a typed size
- Butterfly Garden Planner, Beginner Budget Garden, Quick plan, Problem solver, and a Custom plan wizard that adds soil, HOA, and budget
- Identify a Plant from a photo, with a native replacement suggested for what it finds
- A bloom calendar on saved plans with Pro, plus All Files and Favorites
PATCH VISION
Patch Vision: a rendering of your plan, on your yard
Take a photo of the yard you have now, upload one, or just use your address. Patch Vision returns a rendering of how the plan would sit there, along with the real plant list behind it. The image shows the plan, and a young planting looks different in its first season.
- One free preview a day, ten a day with Pro
- Every rendering carries a real plant list and a shareable one-page plan
- Tap any plant in the plan to swap it for another native and render again. The first swap is free
- Leave the app mid-render and it keeps going. A notification tells you when it is ready
MY GARDEN, CARE
Care: watering tasks, Patch Score, and the garden journal
Once plants are in the ground, Care is the screen you keep coming back to. It tracks what you planted, when it needs water, and what changed.
- Your zones and plants, with watering and seasonal tasks timed to your region
- Tasks you add yourself, like mulching a bed before summer
- Patch Score, a free 0 to 100 read on how much your garden supports local wildlife, with a tier, a full breakdown, and the single best next thing to do
- A garden journal of photos and notes, tagged for blooms, pests, wildlife, and maintenance
ASK PATCH
Ask Patch: answers that already know your yard
Ask Patch is the floating button on every screen. It answers in plain language and works from your location and your saved garden.
- Plant answers cover pet safety, whether the plant reads as tidy and HOA-friendly, drought tolerance, bloom season, and what it feeds
- Plant and bee names inside an answer are tappable and open the full page in Explore
- Ask it to review your garden journal and it reads your recent entries
- Bug reports and ideas go straight to the developer from the same chat
Rebates
From a ZIP code to a ready-to-file packet
The finder lists the turf replacement and native landscaping programs for the area your ZIP falls in. It opens from the Explore tab, and it is also the first step of a garden project.
Programs come in two forms. A guided application fills out the forms with you and builds a ready-to-file packet, with your garden plan, plant list, and photos attached, and it keeps your before and after photos, receipts, and notes together in one place. A free checklist gives you every step and link you need, and you handle the program paperwork yourself.
Around ten programs have a guided application today, among them Austin Water WaterWise, SAWS WaterSaver, and Utah Water Savers. Which programs are guided, and what any of it costs, shows in the app.
Where no program covers your area yet, the finder says so rather than guessing.
Tiers
What is free and what needs Pro
Free, no limit
- Patch Score and the garden journal
- Finding rebate programs, and the do-it-yourself checklists
- Watering and seasonal care tasks
- Browsing plants, wildlife, and Learn guides
- Starting a garden project
Free, with a limit
- One free use of each planning path
- One Patch Vision preview a day
- Plant identification from a photo
- Ask Patch questions
- The first plant swap on a preview
- Saving up to five plants, three butterflies and moths, and three bees
Where Pro raises the ceiling
- Unlimited plans across every planning path
- Ten Patch Vision renderings a day
- Unlimited plant identification
- The bloom calendar on saved plans
- The full HOA packet export
Questions
Questions about how the app works
Do I need to know anything about plants to use it?
No. The planner asks a few questions about your yard and hands back a species list with quantities, spacing, and a planting order. Ask Patch handles anything the plan leaves unclear.
What does the app do with my ZIP code?
It resolves your ZIP to an EPA Level III ecoregion, which is a much tighter fit than a state line. Plant suggestions, care timing, and which rebate programs you see all key off that.
Can it leave out plants that are risky for my dog or cat?
Yes. The planner asks whether you have pets and which ones, then leaves out species the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center lists as toxic to those animals (aspca.org). If a pet does eat something, the ASPCA poison hotline is (888) 426-4435.
What is actually in the project packet?
Four tabs. Plants holds the species list and a bloom calendar with a color for each plant. Install covers spacing and planting order. HOA holds a review summary you can hand to a board. Rebates holds the application steps for programs near you.
Does it work outside Texas?
Yes, nationwide. Plant coverage runs deepest where we have done the most sourcing, and rebate guidance depends on which programs exist near you, so what you see varies by region.
Start with your ZIP code
The first plan takes a few minutes and costs nothing.