How to Use Live View: See Every Plant Where It Grows

Live View shows the plants you have pinned in GardenPin through your iPhone or iPad camera. A ring sits on the ground at the base of each plant, with its photo, name, and distance above it. Walk the beds and the labels follow. It is made for the months when nothing shows above ground and you need to know what is sleeping where.

The whole walkthrough in under two minutes, recorded on iPad. Watch on YouTube.

What you need

• GardenPin 2.0 with Premium. Live View and precise placement are Premium features.
• An iPhone or iPad. Live View works on both and is best on models with LiDAR.
• A garden with plants pinned in it. Live View shows plants you have already added; it does not identify new ones.
• A printer, optionally. Printed garden markers give the quickest, steadiest line-up. You can use two plants instead.

Why Live View asks you to line up

To draw a ring at the right spot, Live View has to know exactly where you are standing and which way you are facing. GPS and the compass are not accurate enough for that on their own, so when you open Live View you see the Line up Live View screen with two ways in: a printed marker, or two plants you have placed.

The chip in the top-right corner tells you where things stand. A green dot with a number such as ± 4 in means you are lined up and how close. Heading unknown means Live View knows where you are but not which way you face yet. Approximate at the bottom means it is working from GPS and wants a marker or two plants to tighten up.

Option 1: Line up with printed garden markers

Best for: gardens you walk often. Markers stay put, so lining up is quick every time.

Print your markers

1. Open Settings → Garden Markers. There are twelve designs. Pick the size for the next print first; every design prints at that size.
2. Choose a size for where the marker will live.
   • 60 mm hides on a stake or a stone and is read from about 40 cm (16 in).
   • 100 mm and 150 mm are read from about a metre, standing.
   • 400 mm is read from across the garden.
3. Print at 100% on matte paper. A marker that comes out of the printer at a different size from the one you picked lands the wrong distance away. The list reminds you which size each design was last printed at.

Place them

Fix each marker where it can stay: flat on the ground, on a stake, or on a post at a comfortable height. Lay two per garden, 8 m (about 26 ft) or more apart. One marker tells Live View where you are; the line between two tells it which way you are facing.

Scan them

1. Open the garden, tap ···, then Live View. On the Line up screen, tap Scan the marker instead. Once Live View is running, the Scan marker button at the bottom does the same.
2. Point the camera at the marker from about half a metre (1.6 ft), square on, and hold still. You will see Found your marker when it snaps into place.
3. With one marker you may see Heading unknown. Walk to your second marker and scan it. Lined up to two markers means the heading now comes from the line between them, and the rings and labels are drawn.

Option 2: Align to two plants

Best for: gardens without markers, or when you just want to take a quick look.

1. On the Line up screen, Live View suggests a plant to start at, for example Start at Smokebush. Walk to it and tap Start. From inside Live View, tap Align to two plants.
2. Step 1 of 2: aim the circle at the base of a plant you have placed before, then tap that plant's name in the list.
3. Step 2 of 2: do the same with a second placed plant. You will see All set, you're aligned.

Reading Live View

• Rings on the ground mark the base of each plant, with its photo, name, and distance floating above.
• Pills at the edge of the screen point to plants that are out of frame, with an arrow and a distance, so you know which way to turn.
• The radar in the bottom-left corner shows plants around you, and the panel counts how many are in view range.
• Tap a label to open that plant's page with its photos, notes, and care.

Your map's position learns from every walk and gets sharper over time. Distances follow your choice of metres or feet.

Place plants precisely

Plants pinned from a GPS fix can be several feet out. With Premium you can put each plant exactly where it grows by tapping the ground through the camera. The full walk looks like this:

1. Start a layout. Tap ··· → Layouts → Start a new layout, then point the camera at a marker. You will see Layout starts at Marker 12 (or tap Start from GPS instead if you have no marker). Your current layout is kept and can be restored.
2. Place each plant. Choose the plant from the list, point the camera at the ground so it finds a surface, aim the circle at the base of the plant, and tap Place Here. The panel counts how many you have placed on this walk and how many are left.
3. Let two plants carry the rest, if they agree. Once you have placed two plants, GardenPin checks them against their earlier positions and may offer to move the remaining plants across by the same shift. Accept it, or keep placing by hand for exact positions; plants far from those two carry any error of the shift.
4. Lay your second marker. When you are far enough from the first marker, GardenPin tells you how far you are and asks you to fix a second marker there and scan it.
5. Close the loop. When everything is placed, walk back to the first marker and scan it. That measures the drift of the whole walk and corrects every plant for it.

Place Plants Precisely is also in the garden's ··· menu.

Layouts

A garden can keep more than one layout: this year's beds and last year's, or the garden before and after a redo. Open ··· → Layouts to see the current layout, start a new one, or restore an earlier one. Each layout shows how many plants it holds and how closely it sits on the map.

Troubleshooting

It says "Heading unknown"

Live View knows where you are but not which way you face. Scan your second marker, or use Align to two plants. Walking a few steps can also help.

The marker won't lock

Stand about half a metre away, square on, and hold still. Check the marker was printed at 100% and at the size GardenPin expects; the Garden Markers list shows the size each design was last printed at. Good, even light helps.

The rings are a little off

Scan a marker again to line up, or align to two plants. If a whole walk of placements has drifted, walk back to your first marker and scan it to close the loop.

My marker got damaged

Print the same design again at the same size and fix it in the same spot.