A garden diary that writes itself, for UK gardens

What is Percy?

Percy is the garden diary that remembers, so you can enjoy your garden. It's an app you talk to instead of writing in. It uses AI to turn what you say into dated entries, keeps your photos and the day's weather with each one, and lets you ask about past seasons. It works for gardens, allotments, greenhouses and pots by the back door, anywhere in the UK.

Just talk. Percy remembers.

A garden diary is easiest to keep in February, when there's nothing to write. It's hardest in May, when there's everything.

So Percy skips the writing. Hold the button and say what happened: first earlies in along the back fence, broad beans up at the allotment, a blackbird making off with the netting. Percy puts it on the right day, in your words, with that day's weather attached, and shows you the entry before it saves. Typing works the same way, if you'd rather.

Photos go in too. Snap a plant, a pest or a leaf that's gone wrong, and Percy tells you what it looks like and what to do, then keeps the photo with the day you took it.

Weeks later you can ask it things. "When did I sow the leeks?" "What did I do about the blight last year?" The answer comes from what you told it, not from a general gardening website.

A garden diary, not another garden planner

You plan the garden you hope to have. You keep a diary of the garden you actually had.

Plenty of good apps help with the first part: plot layouts, sowing calendars, crop rotations. Percy is for the second. There are no beds to map, no plants to enter in advance and no schedule to keep up with, which is useful, because nobody told the plants about the schedule. The seed packet makes promises. The slugs and the weather have other plans. Percy writes down what actually happened, so next spring you're working from your own garden, not the packet.

If you already plan in another app, keep it. Percy sits happily alongside a planner.

Gardening advice for your corner of the UK

A garden in Cornwall and a garden in the Highlands don't share a frost date, so Percy doesn't hand you a national calendar. It estimates your first and last frost dates for where you actually garden, from about 30 years of climate data, and warns you when a frost or a dry spell is on the way, in time to fleece the tender plants, decide what to do about the dahlias or fill the water butts while you still can. Like every forecast, they're estimates, not Met Office figures.

Everything is in the units you use. Temperatures are in °C, rain in mm and wind in mph, and the red beetles are ladybirds.

When you photograph a plant, Percy tells you what it looks like and adds a note if it's a recognised invasive, like Japanese knotweed or Himalayan balsam, or a native worth keeping. Those notes come from Great Britain sources such as the GB Non-Native Species Secretariat, and they cover Great Britain as a whole, not your county. Northern Ireland has its own invasive species rules, which Percy doesn't cover separately yet. When Percy isn't sure, it says nothing rather than guess.

Then there's the Garden Letter. About every two weeks, Percy sends a short email written from your own diary: the weather worth watching where you are, what the local wildlife is getting up to, and the things you told Percy you meant to do. It isn't a newsletter. Nobody else gets the same one.

One diary for the whole garden

The beds, the pots by the back door, the greenhouse, the shed: say where you are when you talk, and Percy keeps each place straight.

If your allotment is close by, keep it in the same diary. Percy uses one location for frost and weather, so set it to wherever most of your growing happens.

Bring your old garden diary with you

If you've kept a diary on your phone, in a document or in a spreadsheet, bring it in. Paste it, or choose a Word, CSV or text file, and Percy finds the dates and shows you every entry on its day, in your words, before anything is saved. Here's how. Photos of handwritten pages are coming in a later update, so the notebook in the drawer still has a future.

Every garden has a story. In January, Percy tells yours.

Most garden diary apps stop at keeping the record. Percy also writes it up. In January, it turns the year's notes, photos, plantings, harvests and small moments into your Migration Report: every plant you grew, how the weather shaped the season, the moments worth keeping, and notes for next year. You don't have to write it. You already did, a sentence at a time. Every report comes with a digital edition to download: the story of your season up front, with your whole diary behind it. A shorter season makes a shorter one.

Swipe for more. Pages from a sample digital edition, from a garden in the US, so the small print is in °F.

You can read a full sample Migration Report to see what one looks like.

Free for your first growing season

Sign up now and Percy is free through 31 December 2027, with nothing locked and no card needed, and your first Migration Report is part of your free season. After that, you choose whether to stay on as a Founding Member for US$39 a year. In the App Store and on Google Play you pay in pounds, at the price the store shows. Cancel anytime.

Start with one thing. The garlic you put in last month counts.

Questions

What's the best way to keep a digital garden diary?

Make adding an entry take seconds, while you're still in the garden. That's the idea behind Percy: you say what happened, and Percy dates it, files it and keeps the weather with it. A diary you can add to with muddy hands is one you'll still be keeping in July.

Can I record my garden diary by voice?

Yes. Hold the button and talk, and Percy turns what you said into a dated diary entry in your own words. You check it before it saves. Typing works the same way.

Can I keep an allotment diary without planning every bed?

Yes. Percy doesn't need a plot plan or a plant list first. Say "at the allotment" or "in the greenhouse" when you talk, and Percy keeps each place straight.

Can Percy help me remember what I planted last year?

Yes. Ask it, in plain words: "When did I sow the leeks last year?" or "Which tomatoes did I say were worth growing again?" The answer comes from your own diary.

Can I import my existing garden diary?

If it's typed, yes. Paste it in, or choose a Word, CSV or text file, and Percy puts each entry back on its date before anything saves. Here's how. Photos of handwritten pages are coming in a later update.

Does Percy know which plants are invasive in the UK?

When you photograph a plant, Percy adds a note if it's a recognised invasive or a native worth keeping, using Great Britain sources such as the GB Non-Native Species Secretariat. The notes cover Great Britain as a whole, not your county. Northern Ireland has its own invasive species rules, which Percy doesn't cover separately yet. When it isn't sure, it says nothing.

Does Percy know my frost dates?

Percy estimates your first and last frost dates for where you garden from about 30 years of climate data, and warns you when a frost or a dry spell is on the way. They're estimates, not Met Office figures.

Is Percy free to use in the UK?

Sign up now and Percy is free through 31 December 2027, with nothing locked and no card needed, and your first Migration Report is part of your free season. After that, you choose whether to stay on as a Founding Member for US$39 a year. In the App Store and on Google Play you pay in pounds, at the price the store shows. Cancel anytime. Pricing has the details.

Does Percy work on iPhone, Android and the web?

Yes. Percy has apps for iPhone and Android, and works in any web browser. Your diary stays in sync across all of them.