Transparent calculations
Volume, spacing, area and water tools use visible arithmetic. Raised-bed soil volume uses length × width × depth, then converts cubic metres to litres. Rectangular garden area uses length × width, circular area uses π × radius², triangular area uses ½ × base × perpendicular height, and watering uses the relationship that one millimetre of water across one square metre equals one litre.
Bag counts are rounded upward because suppliers sell whole bags. Plant-spacing estimates use a simplified layout unless a tool states otherwise, so paths, supports, staggered planting, borders and real plant spread can change the practical result.
Plant Library, names and defaults
The Plant Library provides one shared naming layer across Tiny Mustard Seed so tools and personal records can refer to the same plant consistently. Common regional aliases such as zucchini/courgette, eggplant/aubergine, arugula/rocket and cilantro/coriander can resolve to one canonical plant name without erasing the user's original garden history.
Spacing, indoor-start and broad maturity values are planning defaults rather than variety guarantees. Fruit trees, berries, perennial edibles and vines are deliberately kept out of annual maturity calculations when that model would be misleading. Nursery/rootstock guidance, seed packets, cultivar information and reliable local guidance take priority when they are more specific.
Perennial records and care reminders
The Perennial Register is built from plants the gardener has actually added to My Garden. Establishment age comes only from a saved planting, sowing or acquisition date; Tiny Mustard Seed does not infer a date from harvests, journal entries or the current calendar year.
Perennial care history records actions the gardener enters, such as pruning, feeding, mulching, training, protection or inspection. An optional next-check date is also user-entered. When that date appears in the 7-Day Garden Brief or Today's Garden Signals, it is a reminder chosen by the gardener rather than an automatically generated pruning, feeding or spray schedule.
This distinction matters because cultivar, rootstock, age, training system, climate, local disease pressure and current plant condition can all change appropriate timing. The interface therefore asks the gardener to inspect the actual plant before acting.
Garden Areas and sunlight observations
Garden Areas are user-defined records for beds, containers and protected spaces. Their area, sun and soil fields are saved locally and reused by connected tools. A saved value is treated as a gardener-supplied measurement or observation, not as independently verified site data.
The Garden Sunlight Calculator totals valid direct-sun intervals entered by the user. Its broad planning labels are 6 or more observed hours for Full sun, 3 to under 6 hours for Part sun, and under 3 hours for Mostly shade. Seasonal sun angle, foliage, weather and crop-specific light needs can make a single observation unrepresentative, so the label should be updated when conditions change materially.
Frost and seasonal planning
Historical frost tools use past temperature data to estimate planning dates around a chosen threshold. Those dates describe historical risk, not a guaranteed final frost or first autumn freeze for a specific garden.
The Growing Season Planner starts from broad crop timing defaults and converts them into sowing, planting, succession and expected harvest targets around the frost window. Users can override crop timing with seed-packet or variety information, which should take priority when it is more specific and trustworthy.
Weather signals
Short-range tools can resolve a town or postcode and request local forecast data. Forecast rain, minimum temperature and maximum temperature are used as planning signals rather than automatic instructions.
Forecasts can miss a specific garden and microclimates can differ within the same town. Soil condition, shelter, slope, containers and local warnings remain important checks before acting.
Fertilizer application math
The Fertilizer Application Calculator does not decide which fertilizer a garden needs. It multiplies the product-label rate entered by the user by either the selected area or plant count, then multiplies that application amount by the number of applications entered for purchasing math.
The product label remains the authority for permitted rate, dilution, frequency, crop use and safety instructions. A calculated seasonal total is not a recommendation to apply that amount, and liquid products expressed as dilution rates require a different calculation unless the label also provides a compatible area or per-plant rate.
Irrigation planning
The Irrigation Planner estimates emitter count from row geometry and spacing, then multiplies the selected emitter flow by the network count to estimate system flow. Runtime is calculated from the remaining irrigation volume after rain divided by the selected system flow.
Manufacturer emitter ratings are only a starting point. The planner includes a measured emitter calibration so a timed collection test can replace the nominal flow. A separate bucket test compares source capacity with planned zone demand. Pressure, pipe diameter, elevation, filters, regulator behaviour, clogging and lateral length can still affect uniformity, so real-system checks are required before relying on the result.
Harvest and productivity records
Harvest records are user-entered measurements. Annual yield is the sum of recorded harvest weight for the selected year. Whole-garden yield per square metre divides that recorded weight by the garden area saved in the My Garden profile.
Area Yield Intelligence is stricter: a harvest contributes to a bed-level kg/m² rate only when its saved location matches a defined Garden Area name with a positive area. Records without a location, or with an unmatched name, remain valid harvest records but are excluded from that bed-level rate. Garden Data Health can map split location names back to the intended Garden Area.
Yield per square metre is only a meaningful comparison when area measurements and harvest recording habits are reasonably consistent. Different crop types, succession intensity, harvest duration and plant density can make two areas with similar kg/m² very different gardens.
Keeping tools useful
We favour clear assumptions over false precision. When a result depends strongly on local conditions, the interface should say so and offer a way to replace generic defaults with measured or garden-specific information when practical.
As the platform develops, calculations and plant data should be reviewed and improved rather than multiplied into thin near-duplicate pages. Errors and unclear assumptions should be corrected at the method level so related tools remain consistent.