Apps put gardening and tree info at your fingertips

Here are two useful new apps to assist you with plants.

First, Burpee Home Gardens introduces the Burpee Garden Coach, a free app for gardeners who like to grow what they eat. Through text messages and Web-based interaction via mobile phone, you learn how to choose, grow, maintain, harvest and eat back-yard-grown veggies. To get started, text your ZIP code to 80998.

Features of the Garden Coach include:

■ Text messages throughout the gardening season that provide planting date tips, maintenance reminders and support to improve vegetable gardening success.

■ Access to the complete Burpee Home Gardens variety lineup at your fingertips.

■ The ability to record, document and rate plants in a garden journal.

■ Local weather forecasts to aid in garden maintenance.

■ Harvesting ideas and inspirations from garden to table.

■ Finding Burpee Home Gardens plants at local garden centers. To get the app, go to Burpeehomegardens.com.

Second, the Arbor Day Foundation makes it easy to identify trees using your iPhone or iPod Touch.

The new app is Arbor Day Tree Identification Guide: What Tree Is That? It is based on its similar printed tree ID guide.

By identifying a few basic characteristics of a tree, such as leaf size and shape, and branch structure, iPhone users will be able to determine the type of tree in back yards, neighborhoods, city parks or just about anywhere.

One of the best features of this app is that it can be used anywhere regardless of cell phone coverage once it is downloaded.

It features advanced botanical illustrations of the distinctive characteristics of more than 250 tree species found in North America.

Once a tree is ID'd, the user may "tag" the tree's location using the iPhone's global positioning system.

The app is $4.95 and can be purchased from your iPhone or at iTunes.

This story was originally published March 19, 2011 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Apps put gardening and tree info at your fingertips."